"It's one of the historically poor performances from starters I've ever seen in an NBA playoff game" - Former Chicago Bulls player goes on an epic rant against Miami Heat after their Game 4 dud
After leading by as much as 32, the Boston Celtics blew out the Miami Heat, 102-82. They leveled the Eastern Conference finals at two apiece. Game 5 will be played on Wednesday at the FTX Arena in Miami.
Jay Williams, on ESPN's "Keyshawn, JWill & Max," sounded off his reservations with Game 5 on Saturday, stating:
"I'm just gonna be very real with everybody. It's one of the historically poor performance from starters I've ever seen in an NBA playoff game, ever, in the history of the playoffs.
"I've been watching the playoffs since '89, when I was eight years old. I'm sure if you go back you can find worse losses, but in the first-half, the starters combined for 12 points.
"It was embarrassing last night and I get that sometimes the ball just can't go in the bucket. I get that... this game last night was a straight smack down."
The points tally for the starting five was the lowest for a game since 1971.
Review : Miami Heat vs Boston Celtics, Game 4, Eastern Conference finals
Despite getting similar looks in Game 4, the shots that the Miami Heat sunk in Game 3 just didn't fall in Game 4 at TD Garden on Monday.
Miami set the tone in the first-quarter. After none of the starters could make a single field-goal in the first eight or so minutes of the game, Victor Oladipo sunk a three-pointer.
Max Strus and P.J. Tucker both went scoreless in the game and played significantly fewer minutes. Strus' tally fell from 34 minutes in Game 3 to just 14 in Game 4 and Tucker played just 21 minutes as compared to 38 on Saturday.
The meltdown that the Miami Heat starters had on Monday, for some part, should be attributed to the Celtics' defense, which is still not at full strength.
Robert Williams III's addition put enough big bodies on Jimmy Butler for him to completely fold. Butler ended the game with six points on 14 field-goal attempts. Another thing to take note of here is that Butler might still be suffering from right-knee inflammation.
We now have a best-of-3 series on our hands, with homecourt advantage on our side.
See how we ended up at 2-2 and the silver lining from Game 4 in @CoupNBA's Takeaways
Bam Adebayo, despite scoring 31 in Game 3, didn't put up enough shots, scoring nine points on five field-goal attempts for the night. The addition of Marcus Smart to the already jam-packed defense of the Celtics certainly gives them an edge going forward.