Two nights ago, the Celtics were staring at a two-game deficit in the conference finals, and they were unraveling.
A shouting match began in their locker room and tensions did not truly cool until the following day. All along, though, the Celtics made it clear that these raw emotions came from a good place. They came because this team cared, and was not willing to accept its strong season ending like this.
And on Saturday night, they took the court and pushed back into this series with a 117-106 win in which they never trailed.
Jayson Tatum had 25 points, 14 rebounds, and 8 assists to lead the Celtics, and Jaylen Brown added 26 points and 7 rebounds. Gordon Hayward returned after missing a month with a sprained ankle. His statistics were modest: 6 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals in 30 minutes, 30 seconds. But his presence on the court seemed to settle the Celtics.
Boston led 102-83 with six minutes left before the offense began to stall a bit, and the Heat attacked for some easy baskets inside. A Duncan Robinson 3-pointer with 1:12 left pulled the Heat within 109-101. Then at the other end, Brown was called for a flagrant foul for elbowing Robinson in the face, giving Miami two free throws and the Heat possession of the ball. Robinson made one, and Bam Adebayo scored inside to make it 109-104, but that was as close as Miami would get.
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Observations from the game:
⋅ The Celtics have rarely used their “best five” lineup this season, which includes the four regular starters, plus Smart on the floor in place of Daniel Theis. It actually wasn’t all that effective in the small stretches that it was deployed during the regular season, but it was back with 2:39 left in the second quarter, and it stretched a 51-48 lead to 63-50 by halftime. Brown truly ignited it with two steals and two fast-break baskets.
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⋅ Brown was excellent, particularly during a dominant first half, when he set the tone with his aggressive drives to the rim and tenacious on-ball defense.
⋅ Hayward checked into the game with five minutes left in the first quarter, and it did not take long to see the impact he will make against this pesky Heat defense. He quickly fed Daniel Theis for a dunk, and when Miami switched to the zone, Hayward was deployed to the middle several times to act as a kind of floor general and make quick decisions to keep the ball on the move. The ball simply does not stick in his hands, and that was an issue for the Celtics earlier this series.
⋅ The Heat got plenty of attention for their zone defense in recent days, but once again spent the first quarter in a man-to-man set. The Celtics appeared focused on attacking the basket at the start, particularly with Brown hunting his matchup with Robinson, and they had success. Boston finished with a 60-36 edge in points in the paint.
⋅ The Celtics made one subtle tweak by switching Smart — their best defender — onto Heat point guard Goran Dragic, who was dominant in the first two games with Walker serving as his primary defender. Dragic finished just 2 for 10 with five turnovers, and the Heat were outscored by 29 points during his 28 minutes on the floor. Walker switched onto Jae Crowder, who is much more of a standstill threat as a shooter.
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⋅ The Celtics were doing just about everything right in the first half, but the Heat were lingering anyway thanks to Tyler Herro. The rookie poured in 11 points over a stretch of just 2 minutes, 17 seconds, including a 3-pointer that trimmed what was once a 12-point lead to 40-36. He had 18 points in the first half. Still, it was probably encouraging for the Celtics that they went to halftime with a 63-50 lead despite shooting just 28.6 percent from beyond the arc while Miami connected on 44.4 percent of its tries.
⋅ Boston made 50 percent of its shots in Game 2, but lost in large part because of its 20 turnovers. It cleaned up those issues in the first half Saturday, when it committed just four.
⋅ With 9:22 left in the third quarter, Theis picked up his fourth foul and went to the bench. Stevens put Enes Kanter in for Theis in the first half, but in this situation opted for the rookie forward Grant Williams, who offers more versatility at both ends. He quickly hit a 3 from the left corner and then found a nice seam on the short baseline against the zone and scored inside, as the Celtics stretched their lead to 18.
⋅ Celtics fans were probably having nightmarish flashbacks late in the third quarter. After Boston exploded to a 19-point lead, it missed a few relatively easy shots inside and the Heat attacked quickly at the other end, unspooling an 11-1 run to pull within 82-73 with 1:08 left. But this time, the Celtics punched back, needing just 45 seconds for a 7-0 burst.
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⋅ ESPN’s Rachel Nichols broke some news during the game when she reported that Hayward has decided not to leave Orlando to be with his wife for the birth of the couple’s fourth child. Hayward had originally planned to go, but he spent several weeks with them while rehabbing his sprained ankle last month and has apparently decided to stay with the Celtics.
Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @adamhimmelsbach.
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