NBA playoffs results: Celtics control Game 4 from the start against Heat

Game 4: Boston Celtics 102, Miami Heat 82 | Series tied 2-2

Who was the guy? Jayson Tatum. He set the tone for the Celtics pretty quickly in their dominating win over the Heat in Game 4. At the half, Tatum had 24 points to the Heat’s 33 points. He was extremely aggressive in how he attacked, and he lived at the free-throw line. He set up a home there and had his mail forwarded to the charity stripe. Tatum’s defense was also quite good to help cut off everything the Heat wanted to do early. Tatum finished with 31 points on 8-of-16 shooting, including 14-of-16 from the free-throw line. He also had eight rebounds and five assists in just 34 minutes of play.

Key stat: Four. After giving up 19 live-ball turnovers in their Game 3 failure, the Celtics only had four live-ball turnovers in Game 4. That massive turnaround, along with them getting to the free-throw line over and over, were the big reasons this was such a laugher early. The Celtics never ran into that destructive quarter. They never shot themselves in the foot and just played a lot cleaner.

The moment it was over: It felt like it was over when the Celtics led 18-1. By the time it was 26-4, it felt like it was done. When Robert Williams III made a couple of free throws to make it 50-23, it felt like this thing was settled. Looking at the 57-33 halftime score made me wonder if I had finished binge-watching “Ozark” too soon. This was an obliteration of the Heat by the Celtics from the start of this game. For a while, we were tracking if the Celtics would end up with more assists than the Heat had made field goals.

Ozark, man. Ozark.

— Zach Harper (@talkhoops) May 23, 2022

What can the Celtics do to win Game 5? Replicating this game probably isn’t going to happen, so they’re going to need to hit the 3-ball a lot better than what we saw. They actually shot the ball horribly from deep in Game 4, and they can’t guarantee they’ll have as many free throws as they did Monday night. Keeping the ball in their possession is huge. Keeping the paint walled-off is huge. And hopefully, the Celtics can get Marcus Smart back to turn up the intensity even more on the defensive end of the floor.

What can the Heat do to win Game 5? The opposite of everything that happened in Game 4. They didn’t attack the basket at all with the paint completely shut off. Their shooters hesitated, and the passes to those shooters were sloppy and nowhere near the shooters’ pockets. Everything the Heat did felt wrong in this game. If it wasn’t for Victor Oladipo hitting a couple of shots early, they might have set the record for fewest points in a playoff quarter (five). The Heat need to play with way more energy, purpose and force in Game 5, or they’ll be on the brink of elimination.