1. Anfernee Simons Masterclass
The Celtics offense was struggling to get anything going for most of this game. However, when Boston needed a hero, The Anferno answered the call. Anfernee Simons scored a season high 39 points on 13-28 shooting from the field and 7-16 from three. Simons broke the Celtics record for the most points off of the bench in a road game and his 39 points is ranked 4th all time in Boston history, only behind Larry Bird (47), Payton Pritchard (43), and Todd Day (41).
Simons started the first quarter on fire, hitting 3 threes in 7 minutes and finished with 11 points. The first one came on a handoff from Payton Pritchard for a wide open three. The next one came out of a pick and roll where Garza left a pass for Simons to make another wide open three. The final one started came when Simons went around a nicely set Stagger Spain pick and roll from Garza into a step back three over Kel’el Ware.
Simons had 2 points in the second quarter but it was the third quarter where he really started to turn it on. He finished with 8 points and made some more incredible plays. One was a floater over Andrew Wiggins who was right on top of him and the other was a step back three over Nikola Jovic for his fifth triple of the night.
However, the fourth quarter was his magnum opus on the night, finishing with 18 of his 39 points on 6-12 shooting. His first basket came off of a turnover by the Heat where he took it the other way for a layup on a nice euro-step finish. Second came on a switch with Tyler Herro where he blew by him to finish another layup. Third came on a step-back three over Kasparas Jakucionis where he rejected a Queta screen. Fourth came after blowing by Norman Powell and finishing with a beautiful finger roll. Fifth came on an isolation on Pelle Larsson where he drove by him, jump stopped, and hit a fadeaway midrange jumper in his face with Jaws music in the background. The final basket came on a step back three over Jakucionis where he looked really similar to Damian Lillard.
2. Jaylen Brown big second half
Jaylen Brown had a quiet first half in this game, only scoring 7 points while Boston was struggling. However, he turned it on in the second half, scoring 20 of his 27 points and making some big plays while Anfernee Simons was going off. Brown had 15 points in the third quarter and made a couple nice drives to the basket.
The first came at the 10:14 mark where he was able to sneak by Larsson on the perimeter and finish a finger roll over Bam Adebeyo. The other came at the 4:58 mark where he had Adebayo 1-on-1 and he blew by him to finish the layup at the basket.
Brown had two baskets in the fourth quarter but both of them were big shots. The first came at the 4:05 mark where Hauser made a pass to him on the wing where he able to hit a big three to give the Celtics the lead again. The other came at the 2:33 mark where he hit a nice floater over Herro to give Boston a 4-point lead.
In a game where both Derrick White and Payton Pritchard were having a hard time scoring, Sam Hauser came up huge. Hauser finished with 17 points on 6-11 shooting and not only was his scoring a huge help, but his defense was also great in this game.
On the defensive front, the Heat tried to go at Hauser a lot in this game but forgot he was a legit defender. Although he finished with 1 steal on the night, it was a great play where Jovic was driving down the lane with ball. He elbows Hauser but Sam is still able to reach in and tap the ball away from Jovic into the hands of Anfernee Simons. Simons would then go down the other end and score a layup.
Hauser also finished with 3 threes on the night but none of them were bigger than the one he hit in the fourth quarter. Simons passed it to Hauser where he went up with the ball immediately and splashed it in the face of Jakucionis. This gave the Celtics their first lead of the night since the 10:47 mark of the first quarter when the score was 4-3 and completed their 19-point comeback.
4. Luka Garza Offensive Impact
It feels like every time Luka Garza is in the game he is going to make winning plays for the Celtics. Garza finished with 11 points on 4-8 shooting and was hustling up and down the court all night. Three of his 4 rebounds were offensive rebounds and two of them resulted in easy put backs. Garza was setting some incredible screens while also being able to slip out of them to grab offensive rebounds. This play is a good example where Simons missed a layup, but Garza sprinted down to grab the rebound and put it back up for a put back layup.
5. Walsh/Gonzalez Hustle Plays
Hugo Gonzalez and Jordan Walsh combined for 6 points tonight but in this game it felt like they were everywhere. Walsh had 4 points and 8 rebounds while Gonzalez had 2 points but finished as a team high +19.
Starting with Walsh, he made an incredible chase down block in this game at the end of the first quarter. After White was stripped going up for a layup, Tyler Herro was leading the fast break for Miami. It almost looked like they were in a foot race to see who could get the block as they both met Herro at the rim but it was Walsh that was able to swat it out of the air.
Walsh also showed some some great offensive plays, the highlight coming at the 9:17 mark of the second quarter. Brown missed a shot that was rebounded by Scheierman who passed it to Simons. Simons swung it to Walsh on the wing who faked like he was going to shoot the three but really but the ball on the floor and blew by Jovic for a monster slam.
Moving on to Gonzalez, He made a lot of great hustle plays on the boards but I wanted to highlight his one basket of the game. Simons threw a bounce pass to White who was on the wing. He then made a shovel pass to Gonzalez where he finished a nice ringer roll around Larsson who was trying to draw a charge. These plays from Hugo Gonzalez make me so excited for the potential of his offensive game developing in the future.
6. Fighting through adversity
At the 5:11 mark of the first quarter, Miami opened up their biggest lead of the night at 19 points. At 1:29 mark of the third quarter, the Heat had a 96.3% chance of beating the Celtics according to ESPN’s Win Probability Chart. Boston was down by 15 and it looked like it was going to take a miracle for them to win but, the Celtics were ready to fight.
Boston outscored Miami 36-21 in the fourth quarter, shooting 12-25 from the field (48%) and 4-10 (40%) from three. Anfernee Simons scored 18 of the Celtics 36 points in the fourth quarter but Brown and Hauser also hit some big shots down the stretch. The Celtics have had issues when it comes to clutch time games this season. They lost 3 of their last 4 games coming into this matchup with the Heat and all of the losses came down clutch time in the fourth quarter. It’s nice to see Boston bounce back from some shaky fourth quarter performances.
7. Shut down Heat in the 4th Quarter
Through three quarters the Heat scored 93 points with Norman Powell and Tyler Herro scoring 20 points while Bam Adebayo had 19. In the fourth quarter, they only finished with 21 points as a team and were held to 7-22 (32%) from the field and 3-10 (30%) from three. Boston did a great job of forcing the “other guys” on Miami to beat them and not to let Powell, Herro, and Adebayo get hot.
Starting with the defense on Bam, look at the contest that both Sam Hauser and Neemias Queta on the baseline. The shot clock was running low and Adebayo just had to throw something up with Hauser and Queta in his face. The shot resulted in an airball but these great contests occurred in the entire quarter, making Bam finish with 3 points on 1-6 shooting in the fourth quarter.
Moving on to Herro, at the 55 second mark of the fourth quarter and the Heat down by 4, Herro had a chance to make it a two point game. However, Anfernee Simons played some great defense that forced Herro to throw up a prayer floater that hit back rim. Herro finished with 2 points on 1-3 shooting the quarter.
Finally, one of the best plays of the night came at the 3:56 mark of the fourth quarter. Powell was driving to the lane and decided to test the best shot blocking guard in the league, Derrick White. Safe to say, Powell lost that matchup. Powell finished the best out of the three with 6 points on 3-5 shooting but it wasn’t enough to give Miami the win.
8. Dominant Paint Presence
Boston was able bully Miami on the boards in this game, winning the rebounding battle 51-40. I think a really impressive stat for the Celtics is they had 18 offensive rebounds and generated 31 second chance points. The Celtics were able to win the points in the paint battle as well, outscoring the Heat 50-42. Boston shot 25-44 (57%) when it came to shots in the paint and were a perfect 9-9 finishing at the basket. This was a big part of the Celtics comeback as Boston was just aggressive at getting to their shot.
9. Finally got to the free throw line
After Jaylen Brown was fined $35K for criticizing the refs on Saturday and after Joe Mazzulla give a postgame interview where he only answered questions with “illegal screen” on Monday, it looks like the Celtics finally got their wish for better foul calls. Boston went 24-25 at the free throw line tonight and was able to take advantage of Miami being aggressive on defensive. Brown was the main beneficiary of the whistle in this game, finishing 7-7 at the charity stripe.
10. Celtics still own the Heat
Coming into this game the Celtics had won 8 games in a row when playing the Heat in Miami since Game 4 of the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals and tonights win pushes the streak up to 9. Boston has owned the overall matchup against Miami ever since the Celtics crushing loss in Game 7 of the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals, winning 12 of their last 14 games against the Heat. It’s nice that the Miami Heat devil magic that haunted the Celtics for most of the early 2020s might finally be gone. It will always be nice to see Boston beat Miami no matter the state of either team, but this game felt especially nice being a comeback victory.
