Heat’s Erik Spoelstra Sensed This From Celtics In Game 5 Rout
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BOSTON — Despite the inviting warm weather, the Boston Celtics wanted no part of heading back to Miami.
It didn’t take long for Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra to catch on to that notion in Game 5.
The Celtics made sure they didn’t have travel plans the rest of this week by routing the Heat, 118-84, at TD Garden on Wednesday night to close out their first-round NBA playoff series.
“They took control of this game,” Spoelstra said. “You could sense that they wanted this to end right now tonight and not let this thing get back to Miami. That’s a sign of a mature team.”
The Celtics haven’t always shown that killer instinct, something Spoelstra and the Heat took advantage of, at times, during the recent playoff history between the two teams.
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But the Celtics put the Heat to rest early in Game 5 and left no doubt. Boston grabbed a 41-23 lead after the first 12 minutes and that ballooned to a 30-point cushion with the Celtics going on a 14-2 run to begin the second quarter.
Boston’s 34-point win was its largest of the series and its average margin of victory in the four wins was 22 points. They flexed their muscles and aside from Game 2, dominated an undermanned Heat team without Jimmy Butler.
Spoelstra didn’t let injuries be an excuse for his squad — Butler, Terry Rozier and Jaime Jaquez Jr. all didn’t play in Game 5 — and he knew in this postseason go-around with the Celtics that Boston was clearly the better team.
“We’re not going put this on the fact that we’ve had some injuries,” Spoelstra said. “Let’s not take away anything from Boston. They’ve been the best team in basketball all season long and in this series in four of the games, they played as such. … They played very good basketball and they probably had something to motivate them even more against us.
“They played at (a) high level and I will not watch one minute of their games, but they will probably do this to several teams from here on out. They’ve got a very good team, they know what they’re doing and they deserved this one.”
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