Bam Adebayo offers unique excuse for Heat after Game 1 loss to Boston Celtics, Adebayo told reporters, it would’ve been a….
Bam Adebayo had quite the take on why the Miami Heat’s 20-point Game 1 loss to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals wasn’t closer: the Cs had that one measly 14-point run at the start of the game, otherwise, it would’ve been a 50-50 game.
“I feel like it’s a different ball game if they don’t get off to a hot start at the beginning. You know, like you said, we went on a run in the fourth,” Adebayo told reporters (h/t Inside The Celtics). “But, if that start doesn’t happen, if there’s a ball in the air or a ball on the floor and we get those 50-50 balls, it’s a different ballgame.”
It’s understandable to call out your own team for slipping up at various points in the game, but believing that the game would’ve played out the same way — with a fourth-quarter Heat run that certainly looked like the result of complacency following a 30-point Cs lead built up in the second half — is a pretty blatant cope.
Boston Celtics must come out with something to prove in Game 2
Miami’s fourth quarter run should bother Boston, but Caleb Martin’s hard foul on Jayson Tatum, one possibly inadvertently caused by Jrue Holiday, in the final minute of Game 1 should motivate the Celtics to come out like a house of fire in Game 2; leaving no doubt that this series is one the Cs know they can’t lose.
Coming in as 15+-point favorites, Boston is fully expected to win. And win big. But they play the games for a reason, as the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals between these two teams showed firsthand less than a year ago.
Hopefully the copium is even stronger from Miami’s players after a similar performance from the Celtics in Game 2.
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Boston Celtics analyst blames Jrue Holiday for Caleb Martin-Jayson Tatum incident
Longtime Boston Celtics fanalyst Bill Simmons believes Jrue Holiday inadvertently caused the Caleb Martin bump on Jayson Tatum in the last minute — which caused a nasty fall for No. 0 that he luckily immediately bounced back up from after hitting the floor — of a 114-94 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals win over the Miami Heat on April 21.
“I thought he got shoved from behind by Jrue Holiday, which everyone missed,” Simmons said on The Bill Simmons Podcast (h/t NBACentral). “I watched the replay; I think he was a little off balance and crashed into him.”
Upon looking at the replay further, there’s a case to be made that Simmons is right. Holiday does shove Martin, who was clearly ready to crash the glass, and that may have caused the Heat wing to lose his balance and barrel into an airborne Tatum.
Not everyone is sold on Martin, and on a larger scale, Miami’s, innocence, though.
Boston Celtics commentator Brian Scalabrine convinced Caleb Martin foul on Jayson Tatum was orchestrated
Brian Scalabrine had his tinfoil hat on discussing the possibility that Erik Spoelstra orchestrated Martin’s potentially dirty play coming out of a timeout.
“I’m not trying to start anything here, but Erik Spoelstra called a timeout with 1:30 down 16,” Scalabrine said. “30 seconds later, the Martin undercutting Tatum on the rebound play happens. Why is he calling a timeout in that spot, and why is that play happening right after? That looked shady to me. I think Martin should get suspended for that.”
Unfortunately, there’s been numerous instances of Spoelstra’s players being dirty while matched up against Boston. “Heat Culture” has a specifically negative connotation to Celtics fans, and Game 1’s final-minute happening certainly didn’t help sway that narrative.
How Game 2 is played should provide more context to whether or not Spoelstra is trying to take out Boston’s best players to have a chance at upsetting the Cs in this Eastern Conference Quarterfinals series.
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