On Sunday evening, Celtics fans were dancing on Causeway Street and climbing light poles as they celebrated a Game 7 second-round win over the 76ers. Not only had the Celtics advanced to the Eastern Conference finals, they entered as massive favorites against an eighth-seeded Heat team that had every reason to just be happy to be here.
And the first half of Game 1 Wednesday generally went according to plan. The Celtics led by as many as 13 points, the talent gap seemed apparent, and a cushy win appeared on the way.
But along their road to becoming overwhelming favorites to win the NBA title, the Celtics have rarely done things the easy way. And now there is one more example that could end up being little more than a blip, but could also become a disaster.
The Celtics were throttled by 21 points during the Heat’s dominant 46-point third quarter, and this time their own comeback attempts fizzled, as Miami grabbed a 123-116 win and a 1-0 series lead. Game 2 will be played at TD Garden on Friday night.
“We came out too cool,” guard Jaylen Brown said. “It was almost like we was playing a regular-season game. Like, it’s the Eastern Conference finals, come on.”
Coach Joe Mazzulla, whose decision not to call a timeout during the Heat’s third-quarter surge could have been fateful, pushed back strongly against the suggestion that his team was unprepared for this big game with bigger stakes.
He pointed out several times that the Celtics had won every quarter but one — an approach often taken by his predecessor, Ime Udoka.
“We were prepared,” he said. “We played harder than them in the first half. And they outplayed us for one quarter. So we were prepared for it. We had the right mind-set heading into the game.”
When a reporter started to push back on this notion, Mazzulla interrupted.
“No, we had the right mind-set heading into the game,” he said. “We played harder than they did, and we were prepared and we did a great job.”
He said the Celtics had simply “let go of the rope” as the Heat began to wallop them. Miami has hardly resembled an average No. 8 seed during these playoffs. The Heat disposed of the top-seeded Bucks and the fifth-seeded Knicks, and now they needed just one game to pluck home-court advantage from the Celtics.
The Heat continue to follow the lead of their superstar, Jimmy Butler, who had 35 points, 7 assists, and 6 steals, including three massive ones to push back the Celtics’ fourth-quarter comeback attempt. Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, the star of the Game 7 win over Philadelphia, had 30 points but committed three costly turnovers down the stretch, including a pair of traveling violations.
“Just got to slow it down in those moments,” he said.
The Celtics allowed the Heat to shoot 54.1 percent from the field and 51.6 percent from the 3-point line. Miami had the NBA’s 25th-ranked offense during the regular season, so it’s certainly possible that this hot shooting night was just an outlier that will not be repeated. But the Heat have been good enough in these playoffs to at least make the Celtics concerned about finding out.
“We are a confident group,” Butler said. “Whether we are up 10, down 10, we’re not too worried about the opposing team.”
The urgency that was palpable in the two elimination games didn’t seem to be there at the start for the Celtics. Still, the Celtics mostly affirmed that they were the more talented team.
They seized control with a 10-0 second-quarter run and led by as many as 13 points before taking a 66-57 lead to the break. The fact that the Heat faced a substantial deficit despite their scorching shooting certainly didn’t appear to be an encouraging harbinger.
The third quarter started innocently, with a Marcus Smart 3-pointer stretching Boston’s lead to 12.
But Miami went on a quick 9-0 run, and there were uncomfortable murmurs in the crowd. By the time a Max Strus layup with 7:18 left gave the Heat a 76-75 lead, fans could be heard yelling to Mazzulla to call a timeout, but he resisted. He said that if he had not burned two timeouts in the first quarter, he would have felt more comfortable burning one here.
He eventually waited for a television timeout with 6:28 left and the score tied at 78 to regroup. But by that time, the Heat’s confidence was already swelling. They suddenly knew they had a chance, and a good one.
Miami poured in 11 points over the final two minutes of the quarter, the last 3 coming on a dagger by Strus that sent the Heat to the fourth with a 103-91 lead. The carnage from the quarter was extensive, and ultimately too much to overcome.
“On both ends, offensively and defensively, we allowed them to do what they wanted to do, get where they wanted to go,” Smart said. “For us, we’ve just got to pick it up.”
The Celtics started the fourth quarter with a 7-0 run, but Heat coach Erik Spoelstra stopped it with a timeout. The Heat hit a rare cold spell, going more than three minutes without a point. But the Celtics were unable to take advantage, undone by one miscue after another. Al Horford and Tatum threw the ball away, and Tatum then committed consecutive travels before Butler rolled in a 3-pointer with 1:02 left that made it 120-110.
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @adamhimmelsbach.
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