The Boston Celtics defeated the Miami Heat 114-94 in Game 1 of the playoffs on Sunday at the TD Garden.
Boston dominated this game from start to finish as they tied the franchise record with 22 made 3-pointers in a playoff game and Jayson Tatum recorded his first career playoff triple-double.
There was a concerning moment late in fourth quarter that needs to be addressed:
Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra called a timeout with 1:30 left on the clock and then with :59 seconds left in the game we saw a hard foul on Tatum that put him flat on his back underneath the basket and led to Jaylen Brown having words with Caleb Martin and the Heat team.
Luckily Tatum popped right back up and went to the other end of the court to take his free throws. Brown and Martin were issued double technicals as Brown was very upset about how this happened.
During the Celtics postgame show, team play-by-play game analyst Brian Scalabrine was very upset about how the play on Tatum even happened and thinks Spoelstra issued a “code red” to send a message to the Celtics.
When it comes to basketball, Scalabrine knows what he’s talking about. He understands the game, processes it at a high level, and knows the difference from a clean and dirty play. Scal didn’t hesitate once to call this out by Spoelstra and I appreciate that from him.
This makes the series even more interesting than it already was. The most important thing is that Tatum appears to be fine, he finished the game and told Lisa Salters postgame that “it’s playoff basketball.”
Game 2 is on Wednesday evening in Boston.
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Photo Credit: Adam Glanzman, Getty Images
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