The Celtics jumped ahead quickly against the Heat on Thursday and never looked back, surging past their Eastern Conference rivals 143-110.
Here are the takeaways.
1. That was a beatdown.
The Heat were without standout rookie Jaime Jacquez Jr., as well as Kevin Love, but they were also without only-in-last-year’s-playoffs superstar Gabe Vincent (who now plays for the Lakers) as well as only-in-last-year’s-playoffs superstar Caleb Martin (who still plays for the Heat and got 21 minutes on Thursday but was 2-for-12 and has clearly regressed back to “not a superstar”).
Apart from that, the Heat were all present and accounted for, and the Celtics were better by a mile.