Celtics embarrassed in spineless Game 3 loss to Heat, now face 3-0 series deficit
As the Heat raced up court, continuing to run away from the Celtics on a play early in the third quarter Sunday night, Jimmy Butler watched as Gabe Vincent pulled up and drilled another 3-pointer.
It put the Heat up 23 points. Joe Mazzulla, mercifully, called a timeout. And then Butler got on one knee in front of Al Horford, and flashed the “T” timeout sign at him, a response to what Horford did earlier in the series.
The Heat were just trolling the Celtics at this point.
They were already embarrassing them, humiliating them, whatever description you wanted to choose, and the worst hadn’t even come yet. The Celtics trailed by as many as 33 in the third quarter. They were thoroughly dominated. It looked as if they had quit. It was over well before Mazzulla pulled most of the starters out to start the fourth quarter, as they threw in the towel.
Not even the Celtics’ backups put up a fight.
With their season on the line, the Celtics submitted one of their worst efforts of the year in a spineless 128-102 loss in Game 3 to the Heat here at the Kaseya Center.
“It’s just embarrassing,” a somber Jaylen Brown said.
Down 2-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals after dropping the first two games at home, the Celtics knew they had to have this game. Hours before tip on Sunday morning, Jayson Tatum acknowledged the success they’ve had on the road in the postseason as a byproduct of their sense of urgency in such situations.
“Usually when we go on the road, this year and last year, we’ve had no other choice,” Tatum said. “It was either win or the season was over with. It’s kind of the backs against the wall, gotta figure it out.
