Sometime during the first half of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final, the lowest score of 24 minutes in a play-off game since 2014, I realized: The Miami hit-Boston Celtics playoff series is not a good time for anyone. At the time of this epiphany, Miami was in control of the first real off-season of the first half of the series to this day, and yet it seemed like a gnashing of teeth. I think a halftime score of 42-37 would do it for anyone.
As the series passed at the beginning of its high-stakes climax, there was not even a nervous energy about watching it. It was even more frightening, laying the groundwork for the first four games with sloping and one-sided play – displayed by both teams. It was a real half-kind of “be careful what you want”; After everyone lamented the lack of close play in the series, with the exception of Boston for a short time in Game 3, the two teams came to their worst on Wednesday, turning the ball 13 times combined in that first half, when a nightmare shooting 31-of-82 from the field .
Personally, things were less fun for me after halftime, so I’ll just talk about the discomfort that comes with seeing the hit go to 4-for-4 in the third quarter to lower its notable five-point lead to an unbeaten 11-point. Deficit at the end of the third. Whatever the Boston offense in the first half – weak execution, Jason Tatum’s shoulder pain causing his jumpers to shrink almost every time, Jillian Brown becoming a man’s turnover machine – mostly disappears after the break, when Miami’s own offensive issues hold them down. It wasn’t a tragic performance like the first quarter of Game 4, but it was close and even more frustrating to be at home.
From there, it was purely academic. Boston built its lead in the 20’s প্রতিটি every game in the series, at one time or another, and had a 20-plus point lead for both sides — and somewhere near the rear end of the Miami Quarter, it’s really a matter of concern for the Celtics. Not close enough to. The final score, 93-80, actually flattered Miami, and Boston got the lead right in the 3-2 series and have a chance to close out this tragic series at home on Friday.
There were quiet moments, to be sure. Left Adebayo’s putback dunk early in the first quarter was full of fire and thunder, in the posting process of both Al Harford and his teammate Jimmy Butler:
During Boston’s second-half dominance, Jillian Brown returns to the other side as she hits a launching pad for a wicked one-handed slam:
On the other side of the court, Robert Williams continued his work, including blocking three of Vincent’s attempts at a gab after launching from paint to corners in an impossibly short time:
Towards the end of the third, the game was basically over, with Miami cursed for its inability to sink the three-pointer into anything near its regular-season league-leading 37.9 percent. On Wednesday, the team shot a Houston Rocketscake 7-for-45 from downtown, and with the exception of a few good competitions in Boston, these shots were not as difficult as three-pointers go. The Celtics didn’t do very well, shooting 30 percent from downtown, but they were able to get easier shots in and around the paint than Miami could against Boston’s very large defense. Butler and Kyle Lowry, in particular, did not need hits; Although both are stuck due to various injuries to the lower part of the body, their team can’t do much without them, so they are in lineup, trying and failing to do any explosions and playmaking on the lip foot.
As the series moves to Boston for Game 6, I hope to have a satisfying ending here. Whoever comes out of this fight will have to be a huge underdog for the Warriors — or, I think, the Mavericks, if they can come back to the first 3-0 in league history – in the final. They will be stuck like hell; At the moment it is easy to list which players on each team do not have a chronic injury. And they need to figure out how they can do the best they can after a terrible six or seven match series.
I don’t know if Miami will be able to pick up another clutch win over Boston to send the game back home for Game 7, or whether Boston will win three in a row against a Flanders opponent. This series has denied all arguments so far, so why not do it the rest of the way? What I do know is that I am ready for it to end.