We saw both the best and worst of the Celtics in the first throwdown of their two-game series against the Miami Heat. It was somewhat like the recent contest against the Spurs…except unlike that one, the Cs couldn’t crawl out from under the giant boulder they’d let fall on them.
1. A hellhole of historic proportions
It’s hard to really recreate how utterly demoralizing the first half of this game felt as it was happening. Instead, it’s best to look at it through a broader prism:
79 points is the most the Celtics have given up in a 1st half since January 1963
— Max Lederman (@Max_Lederman) May 9, 2021
Plenty of teams in this era played fast, almost none faster than Bill Russell’s Celtics under Red Auerbach.