At 08:30 a.m. Beijing time on May 20, the Heat faced the strong rival Celtic on the road, and the two teams faced off for the second game of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Heat played very tenaciously in the last game, stealing a win on the road and holding home court advantage firmly in their hands, and Butler beat Tatum; So, you have to marvel at Coach Spoo's top-notch coaching ability. What about Celtic's coach Mazura? When the core star of the team did not play well, he did not call a timeout to adjust and lost his advantage, and he needed to learn a lesson to improve the team's offensive and defensive quality.
Butler can be described as an offensive and defensive integration, when he is mainly defending Tatum, the latter shoots 38% from the field, which shows the horror of his defensive ability. G2 is a game the Celtics can't afford to lose, so we saw towels emblazoned with the slogan "Down with the Heat" on the home seats. The Celtics still have a big chance of winning this game, after all, the home series G2 has won eight straight games, and the last defeat was in the East final six years ago. Predictably, G2 will be challenging for the Heat, and the process will be very exciting.
At the beginning of the first quarter, the Heat's offense went more smoothly, leading the opponent with a wave of "9-4"; Then Butler actually faced Lowe with three points, but was positively humiliated by the big hat, which is the performance of Lowe's top bouncing ability. The Celtics' offense was very sluggish, scoring 14 points after playing 9 minutes in the first quarter, Tatum was thrown by the bag, and Butler directly ran back to steal; Brown appeared to be very sluggish, scoring only 2 points on 1-of-7 shooting in the first quarter, which is the reason why the team's offensive performance is average; Fortunately, Tatum scored 12 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists on 4-of-6 shooting, helping the team maintain the situation and lead the Heat by one point at 25-45.
In the second quarter, the Celtics continued to chase points in the connection, and after 4 minutes of play, they had completed the comeback, and the lead was extended to 10 points; Then Martin turned into a surprise soldier, constantly shooting three-pointers and scoring a strong shot, and the gap was once again narrowed to 5 points. However, in this comeback process, the Celtics played a wave of "17-2" counterattack climax, responding well to the Heat's attack. At the end of the second quarter, the Heat won by five points in a single quarter, 30-25, and led the Celtics by four points at halftime, 54-50.
From the half-time perspective, both the Heat and Celtics played an offensive flow, and the Heat clearly played more team-oriented. Adebayo had a comprehensive stat of 8 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists, Martin had 14 points and Butler had 12 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 1 block. Tatum had 14 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists, Brown had 6 points and 1 rebound, and everyone else played mediocre.
Returning in the third quarter, the Celtics played very tenaciously, the gap had narrowed to 1 point, Tatum broke through Adebayo and faced an empty basket with a two-handed dunk, completely stopping the Heat. And Butler was also able to respond to the opponent's offense, holding the ball and fast attack to assist Adebayo with both hands to smash the hand, and the Heat temporarily fell into a disadvantage. Tatum had 15 points, six rebounds and one assist on 5-of-8 shooting in the third quarter to help the team win by 12 points in a single quarter and lead the Heat by eight points at 83-75. This is the result of the Celtics' change of formation, and the all-space roster is indeed able to use Tatum's offensive talent.
As the fourth quarter began, the Celtics used Lowe's height and size advantage to help him keep scoring, and the team still led by double-digit points. While Butler was resting, Dunroe made a three-pointer at the top of the arc as soon as he came up, but soon Brown was shooting mid-range and colored, and the Heat's trailing margin was reduced to single digits. Then Dunroe hit a three-pointer again, and the Heat kept approaching the point difference, but Lowe's interior advantage still played a role, and the Heat were always short of a breath. Then Butler returned a "2+1" as soon as he came up, responding well to Gwee's three-pointer, and the individual play was really tough.
When the game came to a critical moment, Brown's offense still did not score, giving the Heat a chance to play an offensive counterattack; And Horford grabbed the rebound and fouled, Tatum also had an offensive foul, and Butler stood up early to make another contribution. With Vincent making a mid-range shot, the Celtics were over, and the Heat overturned the Celtics again on the road, 111-105.
Throughout the game, since this was the home of the Celtics, and the team was trailing 1-0, the referee's whistle was more skewed to the side behind, and some of Tatum's fouls were not whistled. Obviously, this is another kind of black whistle, but this is the reality. Mazura's change in the second half was very timely, after all, after the team's offensive problems, it could only adopt an all-space lineup to improve the team's offensive efficiency. The Heat are also very tenacious, and Coach Spoo's tactic is to hit the opponent's offensive weak points, which is why the Heat were able to take the lead in the final quarter of the crucial period.
The Heat's dominance in rebounding protection, combined with more turnovers for opponents, is what allowed them to lead multiple times in the game. In key moments, the Heat clearly outscored and made fewer mistakes, which made this team the final winner.
Player stats: Love 5 rebounds and 2 assists, Butler 27 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks, Adebayo 22 points, 16 rebounds and 9 assists, Vincent 9 points, 2 rebounds and 2 steals, Strus 11 points, Dunro 15 points, Martin 25 points and 4 rebounds, Zeller 2 points and 6 rebounds; Tatum 34 points, 13 rebounds and 8 assists, Horford 2 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks, Lowe 13 points and 3 rebounds, Smart 7 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists, Jaylen Brown 16 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists, Gwee 9 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists, Brogdon 13 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists, White 11 points;