Celtics (34-10) at Heat (24-20) Game #45 1/25/24

[Celtics2021]

Heat fans clinging to this narrative that they will just show up in the playoffs and win. But let's look a this closer:

-2 seasons ago. Miami was the 1 seed. Played hard throughout the regular season. Heat fans told us how important seeding and the regular season was. Now they do not feel the same.

To be fair to Heat fans, two years ago they lost in the conference finals at home in Game 7.  Last year they were the 8-seed and made it to the Finals despite that.  They have reason to have changed their tune on the regular season.

[celticinorlando]

Heat fans clinging to this narrative that they will just show up in the playoffs and win. But let's look a this closer:

-2 seasons ago. Miami was the 1 seed. Played hard throughout the regular season. Heat fans told us how important seeding and the regular season was. Now they do not feel the same.

To be fair to Heat fans, two years ago they lost in the conference finals at home in Game 7.  Last year they were the 8-seed and made it to the Finals despite that.  They have reason to have changed their tune on the regular season.

Last year was the exception, not the norm.

[Donoghus]

Heat fans clinging to this narrative that they will just show up in the playoffs and win. But let's look a this closer:

-2 seasons ago. Miami was the 1 seed. Played hard throughout the regular season. Heat fans told us how important seeding and the regular season was. Now they do not feel the same.

To be fair to Heat fans, two years ago they lost in the conference finals at home in Game 7.  Last year they were the 8-seed and made it to the Finals despite that.  They have reason to have changed their tune on the regular season.

Last year was the exception, not the norm.

Well, they're a veteran team that's proven it now.  I imagine that health is priority #1.  Home court and a high seed is probably secondary. 

I mean the '08 Celtics played their butts off for the #1 seed and HCA.  Two years later, they didn't give a crap about HCA and just got themselves ready for the playoffs with the core guys being the same as '08. 

The process evolves.  What may have been important early on doesn't necessarily mean its the same now.

[SparzWizard]

Honestly last night win was great, but the Heat was playing the second night of a b2b. The same way we got shellacked at Milwaukee after the Minnesota game.

Though I'd love to destroy them again every game moving forward, like this score.

[Roy H.]

Heat fans clinging to this narrative that they will just show up in the playoffs and win. But let's look a this closer:

-2 seasons ago. Miami was the 1 seed. Played hard throughout the regular season. Heat fans told us how important seeding and the regular season was. Now they do not feel the same.

To be fair to Heat fans, two years ago they lost in the conference finals at home in Game 7.  Last year they were the 8-seed and made it to the Finals despite that.  They have reason to have changed their tune on the regular season.

Last year was the exception, not the norm.

The last four seasons:

#8 seed, Lost NBA Finals
#1 seed, Lost Eastern Conference Finals
#6 seed, Lost First Round
#5 seed, Lost NBA Finals

Something seems to be working.

[Roy H.]

Honestly last night win was great, but the Heat was playing the second night of a b2b. The same way we got shellacked at Milwaukee after the Minnesota game.

Though I'd love to destroy them again every game moving forward, like this score.

I think the Heat could have had optimal rest and effort and would have lost last night.  The Celtics were simply too hot to be stopped.

[keevsnick]

Honestly last night win was great, but the Heat was playing the second night of a b2b. The same way we got shellacked at Milwaukee after the Minnesota game.

Though I'd love to destroy them again every game moving forward, like this score.

I think the Heat could have had optimal rest and effort and would have lost last night.  The Celtics were simply too hot to be stopped.

That's fair, but to SparzWizards point if we as a fan base are going to wave off the Milwaukee game becasue of rest I think its fair that we take this win with a grain of salt. Of course as fans, we also don't have to be logical. 

[Phantom255x]

The NBA's back-to-back scheduling really is a joke the way it's constructed.

For example, even in the last two days the Nuggets had games and the first one was a nice road win against Indiana, but then yesterday on the 2nd night of a B2B they practically no-showed and nearly lost by 40 to the Knicks. Does the NBA like that product?

It's also odd to me that in some scenarios where two teams play each other twice in a row at the same venue, they still have a day off in between. Isn't that the perfect time to play a B2B since no one has to travel??

There's a reason quite a few of these marquee games this season have become blowouts by halftime and at times a national channel like TNT has to actually switch to a different game in the middle.

[Roy H.]

Honestly last night win was great, but the Heat was playing the second night of a b2b. The same way we got shellacked at Milwaukee after the Minnesota game.

Though I'd love to destroy them again every game moving forward, like this score.

I think the Heat could have had optimal rest and effort and would have lost last night.  The Celtics were simply too hot to be stopped.

That's fair, but to SparzWizards point if we as a fan base are going to wave off the Milwaukee game becasue of rest I think its fair that we take this win with a grain of salt. Of course as fans, we also don't have to be logical.

I'd take it with a grain of salt, just because when one team shots at a historic level, it's not a true indicator of their quality.

That said, we should all feel good about the win.  We just shouldn't expect a repeat any time soon.

[jpotter33]

Re: the back to back issue. The Heat situation last night was much different than our situation and not comparable in my opinion.

When we played the Bucks on the second night of a back to back, we also had to deal with: (1) an emotional, OT game the night before, (2) having to travel, (3) having to cross timezones with the travel and losing an hour, (4) the Bucks being on two full days rest with no travel, (5) the Bucks coming off of an awful losing streak and are clearly motivated to win, and (6) we were literally playing the 3rd game in 4 nights, 4th game in 6 nights, and 5th game in 7 nights.

Much of that does not hold for the Heat last night, as they: (1) didn't have to travel or cross time zones, (2) did play the full game the night before but it wasn't an OT game or overly emotional/competitive game, and (3) are not in a particularly game- or travel-heavy part of their schedule with that just being the fourth game over seven nights with the only travel being the short trip up to Orlando and two days rest before the back to back.

We certainly had the rest advantage, and they could have contributed some to the game. But the Heat are on a five game losing streak and were playing awfully already, losing to a very depleted bottom-feeding Grizzlies team the night before.

This was hardly a "schedule loss" for them in the same way that we legitimately had a "schedule loss" in the Bucks game.

[Kernewek]

Agreed. although I think, this win is about as instructive as the loss to Milwaukee, by and large.

Meaning: we likely won't shoot that well in the future, just like how we likely won't play as poorly as we did in that loss.