The Celtics Whooped The Heat's Ass So Badly In Game 1 That Caleb Martin Couldn't Help But Try And Injure Jayson Tatum

Brian Babineau. Getty Images.

Heading into today, the Celts had lost 5 straight Game 1s to the Heat. Granted those teams included Jimmy Butler, but on some level we all were somewhat nervous of how the team would come out. They hadn't played a game of meaning in a month, they'd had 10 days off, all combined with the early start time.

Our answer? A 14-0 run to start this game.

What we got was a wire to wire ass kicking. Whatever you hoped the Celts would look like, my guess is today exceeded it. Up by as much as 34 points, they end things with another 20 point win even while completely fucking around in the 4th quarter. We saw everything in this game that the regular season matchup told us. The Heat don't have an answer for a healthy Porzingis. He's too big, too skilled, and today was a great example of why Brad traded for him in the first place

The Heat have 2 options defensively. Go man, and experience a world where Tatum/Brown/Porzingis can abuse switches, or go zone where you're asking the greatest three point shooting team in the league to make their open 3s. 

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As we saw all year, the Celts are not going to lose a lot of games where they make 22 3PM and shoot 44.9% from deep. Mind you, this was with Tatum going just 1-8 from deep, so things easily could have been worse. For the most part, these games played out exactly like the regular season games. The Heat offense struggles to keep pace, the Cs offense gets whatever look they want, and we even had the Heat up to their old shady tricks

That Caleb Martin play on Tatum is as low level as it gets. This game is over, you're not making a single attempt at going for the ball. Caleb Martin had one thing in mind on that play and that was to injure the Celtics best player. It's the same shit we see every single year with the Heat, whether it's DWade and Rondo, Gabe Vincent in Game 7 last year, and now today. It's part of what you have to be ready for when playing MIA. They are going to do dirty shit, especially when it's clear they are not going to win the game. 

Good on Jaylen for immediately doing something about it, because everyone with eyes knows what a bullshit play that was.

I guess I would try and take Tatum out as well after he buried the Heat with his first playoff triple double

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and the beauty of this is the fact that Tatum can still be even better. 

While winning Game 1 helps set the tone, it means nothing if you now do not back things up in Game 2. Forget this ass kicking even happened, and be ready to play with the same intensity and approach on Tuesday. The Celts did a great job of moving the ball, taking care of the ball, and finding ways to take advantage of whatever defense the Heat threw their way. We also saw what can happen in a playoff game if you take your foot off the gas like they did to start the 4th, so that's a nice little reminder that these things are a full 48 minute affair.

We'll break down the whole thing in tomorrow's blog, but so far so good. The narrative was that the Celts should blow this team out, and that's exactly how they've started this series. There's a lot of basketball to still be played, but this is about as good a start as you could ask for.

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