Well, for a frustrating a loss as game 1 was, the Celtics didn't come to Miami needing a sweep. Strictly speaking, they did not even come to Miami needing a win (although dropping both would have ramped up the pressure on them to take care of business at home), but they got one in impressive fashion.
The Celtics were without Derrick White, who left the team for personal reasons (birth of his son Hendrix James White), but they got Marcus Smart AND, in a late day surprise, Al Horford back. For only the third time in the playoffs, the Celtics rolled out their preferred starting lineup: SMart-Brown-Tatum-Horford-Rob for this one.
The game did not get off to a great start for the Celtics. They were making some poor decisions at the offensive end and, simultaneously, Miami was killing them on the glass. At one point in the game Miami had 5 offensive rebounds to the Celtics' 7 defensive boards, which explains how Miami was able to build a lead that eventually got up to 10 points (18-8). The Celtics defense looked kind of shaky in the early going, but 90% of that was not controlling their defensive glass.
Ime called a timeout with the Celtics down 15-8, and the team did respond. After giving up a 3 to give Miami it's biggest lead of the game, they ran off 5 straight points and looked to be getting into a groove, when Jayson Tatum drove and picked up an offensive foul, his second foul of the game, and was taken out with 4:14 left in the first.
The score was 18-15 Miami when Tatum went out, but the Celtics closed out the qyarter with a 20-6 run behind a barrage of threes - at the end of the first, the Celtics were 9-11 from three and led 35-24.
Obviously the Celtics were not going to shoot 82% from three for a whole game, so they neede to find other ways to win. At the beginning of the second quarter, they mostly did it with defense. Rob was back in at the start of the quarter, and this part of this game was the best the Celtics defense has looked since before Rob hurt his meniscus. The stats only credit Rob with one steal and one block in 7 minutes in this quarter, but it felt like much more than that. He was a real factor changing the way Miami players felt about the paint. I think his steal was credited on a play where Miami tried to lob it over him and he went up and got it and started the Celtics transition.
The Celtics' 3-point shooting did cool (only 3 from 8 in the second), but Tatum put together astrong offensive quarter, leading the team with 17. Combined with the defensive dominance, that was more than enough to take them into halftime with a 25 point lead.
Of note, before the game Jalen Rose did a little segment on prop bets, and he took the under on Marcus Smart getting at least 6 assists. Smart had 7 in the first half.
Marcus Smart was a key player for the Celtics at both ends of the floor in the first half. However, his shot was not falling. At halftime, his line was 2 for 11 from the field, 1 of 5 from three, for 7 points. But he also added 7 assists, 5 rebounds, and a steal, and did not turn the ball over. At one point he was 1 for 10, including,with under a minute to go, a sequence where he missed a 2-foot bunny, got his rebound, missed the layup, and then Miami coming back with a Butler 3-point play at the other end, cutting the Celtics lead to 23. A 5-point swing bcause Smart missed 2 close in shots. But Smart ended the half by hitting a 15 foot jumper with 2 seconds left.
In the third quarter, Miami did do a Jimmy Butler-fueled run that cut the Celtic lead to 17, but that was as close as they got. One thing that helped the Celtics in this quarter was Marcus Smart's shooting came back. While he only had one assists for the quarter, he led the team in scoring with 11 points on 4 for 8 shooting, 2 of 4 from 3, and added an assist, two steals, a block, and one turnover. The block was more of a steal, as a Miami player had gathered and started to go up for a shot when Smart removed the ball from his hands. The turnover was a dead ball one where a losse ball fight went out off of him.
The other notable thing in Q3: Coming off Jayson Tatum's 17 point second quarter, Miami decided to blitz him and Tatum made them pay. He scored 7 points on 1 for 3 shooting (plus 4 for 4 at the line), but led the team with 4 assists in the quarter. Miami blitzed him, he found the open man, over and over again. By the end of the third, the Celtics still had their 25 point lead.
Tatum and Rob did not play in the 4th, while Smart, Horford, and Brown played about half the quarter. While he was out there, Smart had 6 points, 4 assists, 4 rebounds, giving him an impressive 24 point/9 rebound/12 assist line for the game in 40 minutes. I would have liked to have seen a few fewer minutes on him in this much of a blowout and coming back from injury, but whatever - they will have White back for game 3 and won't have to lean so hard on him. I think he stayed out a little longer than the other starters to try to get him his triple double, but eventually they took him out.
Lots of garbage minutes. The only notable things to happen were Malik Fitts not getting to play for some reason and Nik Stauskas, apparently our 4th string PG, getting hurt and having to be replaced by Pritchard.