The Celtics just went into Miami and dropped the hammer on the Heat to win Game 3 in dominant fashion

Megan Briggs. Getty Images.

That was the answer I’ve been praying for for the past three days. Ever since the clock hit 0.0 after the Celtics’ ignominious Game 2 loss, life has been pretty brutal. I didn’t sleep, considering I kept staring at my ceiling trying to understand how on earth that performance was possible. Then you mix the anticipation for Game 3 and it’s been a great couple of days.

So for the Celts to come out and completely control this game from the opening tip and ultimately win in dominant fashion, just as they did in Game 1, was hugely significant. It did wonders for my mental health, I can tell you that. This was their chance to respond and regain control of this series, and what we got was a completely locked-down performance on both ends of the floor for a full 48 minutes. The energy was great, the defense was a billion times better, they took care of the basketball and most importantly, they played winning basketball.

It made what happened in Game 2 even more annoying. This is how we know the Celtics can play because this is how they have played virtually every night since October. It’s not like they did anything crazy to get this road win, they were just much better in terms of their execution. Better ball pressure, better execution of plans and offensive balance again: if the Celts tick all these boxes, they will be extremely difficult to beat.

What you love about a game like this is that they spend exactly zero minutes hanging out. At no point was their food played with, which is exactly what you as a fan look for heading into Game 3. We knew that as long as this team didn’t play like complete idiots, a result like this would be entirely possible . We just saw it in Game 1, so there’s no reason why it couldn’t happen in Game 3. Just like that 14-0 start in Game 1, the Celts started off 12-3 tonight, and from then on they just got too overwhelming.

When Mazzulla took away the Heat’s 3PA and they couldn’t reach a franchise-record 23, their offense dropped. If you take away one way the Heat can keep it close on the one hand, and then on the other hand you let the Jays do their thing

and you get a great rebounding performance from Kristaps Porzingis, who told us he would be better

and went on to deliver a dominant two-way 18-point performance

Not to mention the backcourt was great. This was truly a team effort, and that’s exactly how you win on the road in the playoffs.

Aside from the basketball stuff, this was also big from a mentality standpoint. Listen, through their own game, the Celts certainly gave the people a reason to drag them. How they would respond to that was very important. As a team that has barely lost twice in a row all season, today was a game that should serve as a reminder of just how good this team is. Could the Celts, with all the momentum in the world, enter their building and eliminate it completely?

Yes. Yes, they could.

But here’s the thing. That’s just step 1. While it was very important to at least achieve a split, the goal of this journey was not to win one match. It is to win both. And if you win both, you won’t come back to Miami until the 2024-2025 season. As great as winning Game 3 is, you can’t immediately give it back and drop Game 4. This presents the Celts with a new challenge: see if they can kick the throat and deliver knockout blows. They failed the test in Game 2, so there you go. Win Game 4, go up 3-1 and really put the pressure on as you return to the Garden for Game 5 with a chance to end the series. That shouldn’t just be the goal, that should be the expectation.

In the same way that it was unlikely that the Heat would shoot 50% from deep again as a team, it is also unlikely that they would shoot as poorly (32%) as they did today in Game 4. The good news is that there is a good chance that the Celtics will also shoot a lot better from deep than their 29%. Find a way to eliminate a team without making threes? That feels pretty important.

We’ll dive into it more tomorrow, but for now we’ll exhale. The resilient team we’ve seen all season did what they do best and hit back. Now it’s time to build on it and keep moving forward.

2 done, 14 to go.