BOSTON — The script was nearly complete.
The Celtics, after trailing by 25 points shortly before halftime, would overcome the Heat in thrilling fashion. Marcus Smart and Jayson Tatum, after returning from injuries that forced them to get helped into the locker room, would be the symbols of their team’s heart. The TD Garden crowd, in love with Smart’s and Tatum’s grit, would shake the building with their exhilaration as the Celtics rampaged all the way out of the big deficit.
The dramatic scenes played out just like they would have in a movie, but sports flicks never end with such a crash. The Celtics, killed by carelessness and an unforgivable first half, could not close out the comeback even with Heat star Jimmy Butler sidelined by a knee injury. After pulling within one point late in the fourth quarter, the Celtics saw their Hollywood opportunity burned down over the rest of a 109-103 Game 3 loss.
“We fought back and got it to a one-point game,” said Ime Udoka, “and made some mistakes and more turnovers.”
Blame the 24 turnovers. Blame the lack of physicality that Udoka cited. Blame an apparent desire to swing for the fences when singles would have worked. Blame Tatum, who called his own 3-for-14 performance “unacceptable.” Even after a brutal start, which drew boos from many of the Boston fans, the Celtics sensed an opening to take a series lead.
So much lined up for them after halftime. Butler’s injury. The energy of the home crowd. The ability of Boston’s players to shrug off serious-looking injuries. Smart and Tatum each returned to the court minutes after requiring assistance to leave it. If the Celtics had closed out the win, those two would have been hailed like Paul Pierce on the night of the wheelchair game.
When Smart came back midway through the third quarter, the Celtics’ game-night crew handled the moment perfectly. As he emerged from the locker room, shaking off the pain to rejoin the Boston lineup just four minutes after rolling his ankle, the TD Garden Jumbotron showed video of him walking back toward the court. By the time he stepped out of the Celtics tunnel, the fans knew the Defensive Player of the Year would be checking back in soon. They roared like their love could grow no larger. He subbed in with 6:52 left in the third quarter, then drilled a sidestep 3-pointer moments later.
Fans lit up like they knew the ending to come. Of course, the Celtics would win. With half of the third quarter still to play, they were back within 10 points. They had 18 minutes to conquer the Heat, who were missing their best player. In TD Garden, where opposing leads always feel tenuous, the Celtics were standing back up.
They had a pen in hand. They just couldn’t scribble out the final minutes of a fairy tale.
“It seemed like every time we put ourselves in a position,” said Al Horford, “we turned the ball over.”
Brown, who led the Celtics with 40 points, committed seven turnovers. Tatum coughed up six, including three during the fourth quarter. As a team, the Celtics had 19 live-ball turnovers. The Heat outscored Boston 33-9 in points off turnovers, a massive disparity in a two-possession game. Even if some of those stemmed from dead-ball turnovers, the Celtics gifted Miami far too many chances in the open court. Mistakes like that kill comebacks. In this case, they outweighed all the time Boston spent trying to overcome a brutal quarter and a half.
The Celtics players expected more physicality from Miami after Boston’s dominant Game 2 win. During shootaround, Udoka said Tatum, Brown, Smart and Horford all spoke up about the likelihood of a strong Heat response. They had noticed the postgame mood on Miami’s side. They believed that such a tough team, led by Butler, Bam Adebayo, Kyle Lowry and P.J. Tucker, would come back with an attitude. The Celtics players told each other to brace for the intensity level. That’s one reason Udoka found his team’s start so perplexing.
“We didn’t think that it was all of a sudden going to be an easy series and they were going to roll over,” Udoka said. “We bounced back from Game 1 to Game 2 and they were going to do the same. And we had to match that and came out flat for whatever reason.”
Lowry, back from a hamstring issue that forced him to miss the first two games of the series, set the tone early by pushing the pace in transition and doing everything he could to disrupt the Celtics’ offense. After two subpar games for himself, Adebayo beat up the Celtics on his way to 12 first-quarter points and four more in the second. The Heat opened the game on a 24-7 run and led 60-35 with 2:39 left in the second quarter.
Even after that, the Boston players thought they found something near the end of the first half. After closing the second quarter on a 12-2 run, cutting the deficit to 15 points, the Celtics headed for the locker room as if they had just seized control. Horford pumped his fist. Grant Williams jumped up and down, hollering inches from Smart’s face.
They could see a comeback awaiting them. It just never fully materialized.
“Second half, we still had opportunities,” said Brown, “and it just seemed like everything was going in the opposite direction.”
Much actually went the Celtics’ way. Like Smart, Tatum returned minutes after an ugly incident. Udoka said the All-Star suffered a shoulder stinger. Tatum said his “neck got caught in a weird position.” He felt some pain in his neck and down his right arm. As he sat on the ground in obvious discomfort, several players huddled around him, visibly concerned.
Tatum still missed fewer than two minutes of the game. While he was in the locker room, Brown scored five straight points to drag the Celtics within four points. As Tatum stepped back into view of the Boston fans, Tucker smoked a layup to keep the score at 93-89. The fans bellowed. They believed. If fate dictated the outcome of games, it should lean toward the team that escaped serious injuries twice.
Tatum would have had a natural character arc as the superstar who fought through many mistakes and an injury threat to pull his team across the finish line. Instead, he never scored again.
“Honestly, I’ve got to play better,” Tatum said. “I feel like I left the guys hanging tonight. That’s on me. I acknowledge that. That was a tough one.”
After cutting a 15-point fourth-quarter deficit to one, the Celtics allowed Max Strus to drill a 3-pointer deep into the shot clock, then fell victim to an impossible Adebayo jumper on the following Heat possession. Smart, after fouling out, approached the referees after the final buzzer to share a piece of his mind. Brown, nearly the hero, instead needed to explain his turnover issues. Horford pointed out that the Celtics again failed to stand up to an aggressive opponent.
“From the beginning, their pressure felt like it bothered us, and we didn’t respond,” Horford said. “It’s happened to us a couple times this playoff run. It’s something that we continue to fight.”
The Celtics keep fighting themselves. Their offensive habits have come and gone throughout the playoffs. They have lost two quarters in this series so far, but those two quarters have been so damaging they now trail the Heat 2-1. Even at home, Udoka thought his team was “outhustled.” He said the Celtics’ physicality has fallen off during this series. The Heat deserve credit for that, but Boston will need to overcome all of Miami’s toughness and deliver a more complete effort in Game 4. The Heat won’t bow down. That much is clear.
In a series that could be dictated at least partially by injuries, Udoka sounded hopeful that Smart and Tatum will be OK. The Heat provided no update on Butler, whose status will be pivotal moving forward. Robert Williams, sidelined for Game 3 by knee swelling and soreness, is considered day to day but will likely need to deal with the issue for the rest of the playoffs, according to Udoka.
Even without Williams, the Celtics nearly finalized what would have been a memorable comeback. Maybe they’re still working on the right ending. Or maybe it just ends like that.
Related reading
Weiss: Celtics buried by stars’ turnovers in Game 3 loss to Kyle Lowry and Heat
Buckley: Celtics need to quickly forget the mess of Game 3 and move on
(Photo of Jayson Tatum: Winslow Townson / Getty Images)
