MIAMI (AP) — Boston coach Joe Mazzulla is a movie buff who made headlines last season when he revealed he watched “The Town” several times a week. And he recently watched the 1993 crime drama “A Bronx Tale,” another film that earned him a positive rating.
One of the key phrases of this film: “Nobody cares.”
It perfectly summed up how he felt about shutting down the Heat.
Jayson Tatum scored 26 points, Kristaps Porzingis had 19 before spraining his left ankle and the Celtics made 22 3-pointers before routing the reeling Heat 143-110 on Thursday night, sending Miami to its fifth straight loss.
“This game was really good, but it means nothing at all in the grand scheme of things if we don’t take the lessons we need and apply them to the next game,” Mazzulla said. “So we’ll enjoy it until we get to the plane and then we’ll move on to the next one.”
There was a lot to enjoy. The 143 points represented the most points Boston had ever scored against Miami, and the 33-point margin represented Boston’s most lopsided victory against Miami in 172 meetings between the franchises, including the playoffs. The Celtics shot 64% and won the rebounding battle 47-31.
Jaylen Brown scored 18 points, Jrue Holiday 17 and Derrick White 15 for the NBA-leading Celtics. They improved to 35-10 and are 2-0 this season against the team that beat them in the Eastern Conference finals last season.
“We just learned from last year, getting so close and not overcoming that obstacle,” Tatum said.
Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro each scored 19 points for Miami, which got 17 from Jimmy Butler. The Heat are on their longest skid since losing six in a row in March 2021.
“I felt like there were a lot of miscommunications throughout the game, defensive mistakes, a whole bunch of things that happened throughout the game that we didn’t fix and that we paid,” Adebayo said.
The Heat were 8 1/2 point underdogs at the time of the game according to FanDuel Sportsbook. They haven’t been this much of an underdog in their own building since Feb. 27, 2019, when Golden State was favored by 9 1/2 points in what became a 126-125 victory at Miami.
This one didn’t have that kind of ending for Miami. Not even close.
Boston wasted no time showing why the bettors did what they did. An 18-7 run over a three-minute stretch in the first quarter gave the Celtics a 40-25 lead, and Boston was up and running. It was 77-64 Boston at halftime, with the Celtics in total control.
And it only got worse for Miami.
The Heat entered the night giving up an average of 110.5 points this season; Boston had 111 with a minute left in the third quarter and entered the fourth leading 113-90. Even including the playoffs, this was only the fourth time in Heat history that a Miami team had allowed that many points in the first 36 minutes of a game.
Miami has trailed by at least 24 points in three of its last five games — 37 at Toronto on Jan. 17, then 24 at Orlando on Sunday and the largest lead Thursday for Boston was 34. And those three games ended like the three biggest. – this Heat season’s lopsided losses.
“What didn’t work was we played a very strong offensive team that has been doing this for several months now,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “It was an evening full of humility. That’s for sure. They put us in our place tonight.
FOLLOWING
Celtics: Host the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night.
Heat: In New York on Saturday.
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