This was a statement win for the Celtics.
Jayson Tatum had a terrible game, not scoring a point until the 4th quarter, finishing with 10 on 3 of 13. He did hit a 3 with the shot clock expiring to ignite a little run in the 4th.
Brown led the team with 17 points, on the strength of 3-5 from 3. (He was 2-9 frommthe field). He went out of the game with hamstring tightness in the 4th, hopefully nothign serious.
The Celtics were down 6 after one (24-18) and actually gave Jabari Parker a few minutes at center around the quarter break to get some extra rest for the bigs.
The second quarter was the Celtics best quarter of the season, just shutting Miami down and laying a 33-9 beating on them. Three of the keys to this were named Aaron Nesmith, Romeo Langford, and Dennis Schroder. Langford and Schroder were part of the good defensive unit in the 3rd quarter yesterday, so seeing them doing it again - and without the injured Richardson - was a good thing. But Nesmith seemed to get them going, scoring his first non-garbage time points (13) of the year and bringing some energy. Did not look like the same guy who failed to score in the first couple of games.
Miami went on a little run in the middle of the third, eventually cutting the Celtics lead down to 8, before the Celtics turned it around quickly. Schroder scored, Romeo hit a 3, Brown hit the lone free throw on an away from the play foul, and then Al drove for the dunk posted above. That was it, though having 8 point lead felt like we were behind for a bit.
The Celtice got 45 points off their bench (most from 14 Schroder, 13 Nesmith, 12 Langford) along with some excellent defense. The +/- leaders for the whole team were Schroder +26, Langford +25, and Nesmith +15.
Grant Williams gets a demerit. He played 6 inconsequential minutes in the first quarter (did hit a three) and Ime did not go to him in the second. Then he came in just at the time when the Heat started to cut into the lead in the third. 2 or 3 minutes into his stint in the third quarter, he tried to throw a long pass to a covered Rob running down court for a dumb turnover, Miami came back and hit a 3 before Ime could get him out and he did not return until garbage time.
I think Grant has to slip down in the rotation. Too much wing talent that Ime needs to get onto the court. I like Grant more than some here do, but at the end of the day, Langford and Richardson are just better players. Unless Grant's eslight amount of extra size is needed, there's never a reason to have him out there instead of them.
Nesmith also made an impact today. With everyone healthy, I feel like the rotation needs to be: Rob, Al, Jayson, Jaylen, Smart, Schroder, Richardson, Langford. That's your top 8. Whichever others play should be situational. Nesmith, Pritchard, Grant should be in the mix for 9 and 10.
The bench unit should be Schroder, Richardson, Langford, Horford and someone else. That's a unit that can, at the very least, defend, and is not without offnesive ability, too.