Two weeks ago, the Celtics marched into Miami and blew out the Heat with a record-breaking offensive performance. They knew the rematch on Sunday wouldn’t be easy.
Then they had to overcome some sudden adversity, too.
Tempers flared in the fourth quarter as Jaylen Brown and Duncan Robinson got in each other’s faces. An otherwise calm afternoon in Miami turned fiery. Suddenly, the NBA’s best rivalry over recent years got heated again. It got chippy. It got intense. The Heat – even without Jimmy Butler – did what they’ve done so many times. They fought back. They nearly stole a win. But the Celtics have been here before.
The Celtics, this season, are better in these late, tense moments. They proved that again Sunday. The Celtics led by double digits early in the fourth and saw it cut to two in the final minutes, but they ultimately withstood the Heat’s rally to take a 110-106 victory that was reminiscent of their recent playoff battles.
Jayson Tatum scored 26 points with 10 rebounds and nine assists, Kristaps Porzingis had 25 points, Brown had 20 points and Jrue Holiday scored 15 points which included some clutch 3-pointers, as the Celtics held off the undermanned Heat, who were without Butler (personal reasons) and lost Terry Rozier and Josh Richardson to injury during the game.
The Celtics had to do so after the key moment early in the fourth quarter, when Brown and Robinson got tangled up on a play that led to a flagrant foul on Brown. Robinson had words for him afterward, and the sequence seemed to re-energize the Heat. But the Celtics held their composure, and finished strong to sweep the season series over their rival.
“It was a good moment for us, because you’re on the road and something like that happens and we have an opportunity to decide how we’re going to respond to it,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla told reporters in Miami. “It was a five-point play and I thought we handled it really well down the stretch.”
The Celtics – who were in control for most of the afternoon – led by 12 early in the fourth and by nine when Robinson was called for a foul while battling for position with Brown. Robinson’s left arm was caught tangled inside Brown’s right arm, and after the whistle, Brown seemed to take some exception to Robinson’s arm still being there. Brown swung Robinson’s arm away in an excessive manner in an attempt to dislodge himself from him, and as a result sent Robinson crashing hard to the floor.
After a review, Brown was assessed a flagrant one foul. Then, as Robinson walked to the free throw line to take his foul shots, he approached Brown and the two got into a heated exchange that forced them to be separated.
“I just thought it was a dirty play, to be honest with you,” Robinson told reporters. “That’s how people miss entire seasons. … Just thought it was dangerous, unnecessary and excessive.”
Brown suggested Robinson was trying to spark his team with his actions on the foul.
“I feel like Duncan Robinson knew what he was doing there, trying to get tangled up and trying to draw whatever, I don’t know what he was trying to do,” Brown told reporters. “But I bet you he won’t do it again.”
While Brown didn’t seem pleased with the sequence, the Celtics seemed to feed off it just as much as the Heat. Mazzulla said he loved it, and that the C’s need to have a certain level of friction, within the rules. Porzingis could be seen smiling in the background when Brown and Robinson were talking. He’s new to this rivalry, but he enjoyed the exchange.
“To be honest, when they got into it again, I kind of liked it,” said Porzingis, who briefly left the game with a lower back contusion but returned. “It got the whole crowd into it. It was a good atmosphere, so I think that was good.”
The sequence certainly sparked the Heat, as Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro took turns trying to orchestrate a comeback. But the C’s had an answer offensively almost every time down the stretch. Herro pulled up and drilled a deep triple with 1:49 remaining to cut the Celtics’ lead to 106-104. The Heat had a chance to take the lead on their next possession, but Haywood Highsmith’s 3-pointer missed, and Porzingis made two foul shots after being fouled on the rebound.
Mazzulla said he loved the Celtics’ late-game offense, but he loved their defense and physicality even more. When the Heat tried to muck up the game, the Celtics responded with their own edge over the final minutes to secure the victory in another sign of their progress from last season.
“We should play right now again,” Mazzulla said.
“I enjoy watching physicality with poise, and I thought our guys did that throughout tonight,” he continued. “You obviously need to rise to the occasion and I thought that … it goes back to the expectation. We said at halftime, we said before the game, expect it to be hard, expect it to be difficult, don’t wish for it to be anything other than what it is, and make sure you respond accordingly.”
