The Celtics won’t get the cathartic first-round sweep many fans hoped for against the Heat after suffering a 111-101 loss in Game 2 on Wednesday.
Here are the takeaways.
1. Wednesday’s game was a harsh reminder that Jimmy Butler – who will miss the entire series against the Celtics – was not the primary reason the Celtics lost the Eastern Conference finals last year. The reason the 8th-seeded Heat beat the second-seeded Celtics was because 1) the Heat made an outlier number of 3-pointers, shot mostly by role players, and because 2) Erik Spoelstra really is an excellent basketball coach.