"Pathetic, moribund and absolutely God-awful" - Stephen A. Smith sounds off on Miami Heat for their horrendous Game 4 performance
The Miami Heat were extremely poor against the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals. ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith lambasted the Heat for getting blown out by the Celtics 102-82.
On "SportsCenter," Smith discussed the Celtics' dominance and the Heat's embarrassing performance. The colorful personality praised Jayson Tatum for leading Boston to a win and evening the series at 2-2. Smith said:
"The kid is ultra talented. He's 6-9 with a tremendous wingspan. He's got a mid-range game. He's got a long-range game. He's got ball handling skills. He's got the athletecism to finish at the basket."
Smith then berated the Heat for their performance, as their starting five combined for just 18 points. The Heat bench was more effective, putting up 64 points. Jayson Tatum outscored the starting lineup and had more free-throw attempts than the entire Heat team. Smith said:
"Other than being pathetic, moribund and absolutely God-awful, I think you could give the Boston's defense credit. There is no excuse whatsoever for a No. 1 seed in a conference. ... Five starters have no excuse for combining for 18 points in a 48-minute game."
He continued:
"That is beyond pathetic. It's one of those things where they should literally seek permission to get back to South Beach for crying out loud."
The Miami Heat's starting five in Game 4 were Kyle Lowry, Max Strus, Jimmy Butler, P.J. Tucker and Bam Adebayo. Strus and Tucker went scoreless; Butler had six points; Adebayo scored nine, while Lowry finished with just three.
Victor Oladipo outscored entire Miami Heat starting lineup
Victor Oladipo was the lone bright spot for the Miami Heat in their loss to the Boston Celtics on Monday night. Oladipo scored 23 points off the bench, outscoring the entire Heat starting lineup.
According to CBS Sports, Oladipo is the first player to score more points than his team's starting five since 1970 when stats were first recorded. The 18 points combined by the Heat's starting lineup is also the fewest scored since 1970. It was an utter disgrace of a performance from Miami.
Victor Oladipo outscored (23pts) the Heat starters (18pts) in Game 4😳
It's the fewest points by a team's starters in a playoff game since 1970-71. https://t.co/2gb6kK3c9I
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra seemed to be unbothered by his team's poor showing in Game 4. Spoesltra told reporters that the team is unhappy with their performance, but they know they can beat the Celtics. The long-time Heat coach said:
"Whatever they have done to us, we can do to them. None of us are happy about what happened tonight. This is part of the playoffs. There are these extreme highs and lows, particularly when you have two teams that are pretty closely, evenly matched."