In the first round of G2, the Celtics lost to the Heat 101-111, and the big score was pulled to a 1-1 draw.
To be honest, such a result is really unexpected, on the one hand, the Celtics are playing at home, and they have a 37-4 home record in the regular season this season, with a winning rate of 90%;
On the other hand, in the last G1 game, the Celtics defeated the Heat 104-94, from the time of view, the difference in strength between the two teams was huge, and the Celtics led by up to 34 points in the whole game, and they gave people the feeling that they had not even fully exerted their strength.
Of course, you can say that this G2 is too accurate for the Heat, with the team making 23 of 43 three-pointers, directly breaking the team history record (the previous highest was 20), but the Celtics really have a lot of problems, especially a few core players.
Holiday is on the defensive line, but 4 of 12 in the game, 1 of 4 in three-point range, and the efficiency is really hard to say outstanding;
Holiday has a three-point shooting rate of 42.9% in the regular season, and 2 of 8 in two games is certainly not a normal level, he needs to find his form as soon as possible, otherwise - last season in the Bucks, Holiday was beaten by the Heat 4-1 Black Eight, and was beaten by Butler face-to-face, in case, let's just say, in case it was Black Eight by the Heat for two consecutive years, it will definitely go down in history.
Porzingis, a top war criminal, 1-of-9 from the field, 0-of-4 from three-point range, only got 6 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists, he delivered 3 steals and 2 blocks on the defensive end, but he didn't feel anything on the offensive end, and he couldn't even play a small guard with the ball, which was really unreasonable.
There is such a statistic worth noting, Porzingis played 30 minutes, and the plus/minus is -32, that is, in the 18 minutes he was not on the court, the Celtics actually won by 22 points, which is simply against the sky.
Focusing on Tatum, facing a familiar old opponent, Tatum played 41 minutes, shooting 10 of 20, 2 of 6 three-pointers, 6 of 8 free throws, and scored 28 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 block.
Looking at the data, it's really not bad, the true shooting rate of the whole game is close to 60%, the plus/minus value on the court is still +6, and the craziest thing is that in the first quarter, Tatum only played 7 and a half minutes and scored 14 points.
The problem is that in the second three quarters, Tatum suddenly broke the line, shooting 5 of 14 and 0 of 3 three-pointers, scoring only 14 points in total, of which in the fourth quarter, Tatum played 12 minutes, 1 of 3 in a single quarter, and only scored 4 points;
His only open goal in the fourth quarter came just before the final 36 seconds, when the Celtics trailed 99-109 and the outcome was largely in doubt, when Tatum made a driving layup.
Tatum is definitely not a bad player, he has played four Eastern Conference finals and one Finals when he was young, which is something that many superstars have not done;
He also performed well in the regular season this season, averaging 26.9 points, 8.1 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game, shooting 47.1%/37.6%/83.3% from three, and a true shooting percentage of 60.4%.
However, Tatum at the critical moment is really unreliable.
Also in the regular season this season, Tatum averaged 6.5 points per game in the fourth quarter, shooting 39.7% from the field and 31.0% from three-point range, much lower than the first three quarters;
Narrowing down to crunch time (within five points in the final five minutes), Tatum was even worse when he played 29 key games this season, shooting 22-of-61 from the field and shooting just 36.1 percent from the field, 6-of-18 from three-point range with 33.3 percent, and seven turnovers — more than he had scored with three points.
In fact, Tatum is also a player who has left masterpieces in key games, such as 50 points in the play-offs, and 51 points in last year's 76ers tie-break, but his lower limit is also amazing, also last year's tie-break, facing the Heat, he only shot 5 of 13 in the whole game, scored 14 points, and the Celtics also missed the Finals.
The dismal performance at the critical moment this year, the slump of last year's tie-break, and the abnormality of the 2022 Finals, Tatum also left people with the impression of "can't fight a tough battle", and if you want to change the minds of fans, a situation like this one really can't happen again.
Of course, such a loss, Celtic also had some bright spots.
Jaylen Brown played 37 minutes, shooting 13-of-23, 4-of-9 three-pointers, 3-of-6 free throws, and got 33 points and 8 rebounds, including 21 points in the first half, if it weren't for him, the Celtics might have trailed by 10 points at halftime.
Derrick White, who played 36 minutes in the game, shot 5-of-8 from the field and 2-of-4 from three-point range, had 13 points and 4 assists, and he scored 9 points in a single quarter in the fourth quarter - coincidentally, the total score of the fourth quarter was exactly 9 points.
Losing is certainly not a one-person problem, the reason why Tatum is singled out and said so much is because he is the leader and the face of the Celtics - just imagine, if the Celtics are really blackened, many years later, who will people think of when they mention this Celtics?
It is worth mentioning that before the end of the game, there was also a scene, when there were 1.6 seconds left, the Celtics made free throws, Tatum received the ball, smashed the ball to the ground, and then went straight back to the locker room.
It can be seen that Tatum is very frustrated and unwilling, and hopes that he can take this loss as a lesson and harden up in the subsequent fourth quarter and critical moments. In this round of the series, the Celtics are still the favored side, but the opposite side is the magical Heat, don't be careless at any time.