“We stopped playing on both ends,” Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens told ESPN’s Rachel Nichols between the third and fourth quarters of Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals on Thursday night, just after watching his team get outworked by the Miami Heat and blow another double-digit second-half lead.
The physical toughness of Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic overwhelmed the Celtics in a startling third-quarter turnaround and again down the stretch of the fourth quarter, and the Heat took a 2-0 series lead with a 106-101 victory. Fifth-seeded Miami is now just two wins from reaching the NBA Finals.