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The Heat let the Celtics get two.
On Thursday, the Celtics beat the Heat comfortably from start to finish, never letting the lead dip below double digits after the first quarter to claim a 110-97 victory.
Here are the takeaways.
1. Maybe this sounds overly reductive, but the biggest takeaway from Thursday’s game is that the Eastern Conference finals are no longer a 3-0 series.
This a 3-2 series now.
No team has ever rallied back from a 3-0 deficit. All three teams in NBA history who have evened a 3-0 series went on to lose Game 7. The Heat still have a home game, and even if they lose that one, they’ve won two games at TD Garden this series. They have a number of solid role players. They have Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo. Smart money would probably still bet on them to get back to the Finals.
But the Celtics have turned a lot of things around and applied a ton of pressure to a Heat team that looks shakier now than at any other point in the postseason. The Heat had a negative point differential during the regular season and were one of the worst 3-point shooting squads in the NBA. The Celtics had the league’s best net rating and were the 2-seed in the Eastern Conference.
Things have started to revert to the mean. The Celtics need that reversion to continue just a little while longer.
2. One of the most eye-opening stats over the last two games has been the turnovers for the Heat. The Celtics forced 10 turnovers in the second half of Game 4. On Thursday, they picked up where they left off by forcing 16 and outscoring the Heat 29-17 off those turnovers.
The Heat were the more aggressive team by far in Games 1-3. The fact that the Celtics have turned that on its head is maybe the most important reversal aside from the 3-point shooting.
3. After coming off the bench briefly when the Celtics went back to their double-big group from last season, Derrick White’s return to the starting lineup has gone swimmingly. On Thursday, White led the Celtics in scoring with 24 points and went 6-for-8 from behind the arc — feasting on kick-out opportunities.
