BBNBA: Bam Adebayo's poor Game 4 helps Celtics stay alive

The Boston Celtics have lived to see another day.

On Tuesday night in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the two-seeded Celtics staved off elimination with an emphatic 116-99 beatdown of the eight-seeded Miami Heat. With the Heat holding a 3-0 series lead and looking to complete the sweep at home, Boston came out and shot over 51 percent from the floor while knocking down 18 three-pointers to stay alive. The Celtics hadn’t made more than 11 triples in any of their previous three contests. Miami went just 8-32 from deep.

Part of the reason Boston was able to control the game in the second half was the poor play out of Miami center Bam Adebayo, who finished with just 10 points (4-7 FG) and five rebounds with four turnovers in a total of 35 minutes. It was easily his worst outing of the playoffs thus far — 10 points are the fewest he’s totaled during the postseason while five rebounds tied his second-fewest. If you’re a fan of plus/minus, Adebayo was -21, also his worst of the playoffs.

After multiple Celtics players said something along the lines of “Don’t let us win tonight” going into Game 4, the team backed up that statement once we hit the intermission. Miami actually led by six at the halftime break, but a 48-22 run over a 14-minute stretch in the second half from Boston led to a complete turnaround. The Celtics won the third quarter by 15 points (which included a devastating 18-0 run in roughly a three-minute span) and the fourth by eight more, cruising to a 17-point victory.

“We were just trying to save our season,” Celtics All-Star Jayson Tatum, who dropped 33 points and 11 rebounds, said postgame. Jimmy Butler added 29 points for the Heat.

Miami will look to finish the Celtics off for good in Game 5, which is set for Thursday night at 8:30 p.m. EST on TNT. That game will shift back to Boston.

As for some good news for the Heat, shooting guard Tyler Herro is on track to return to action if Miami ultimately makes it to the NBA Finals, which begins on June 1. Herro underwent surgery on April 16 and was expected to miss 4-6 weeks after breaking his shooting hand.

“He is starting the process,” Spoelstra said. “So there’s no timetable. But he does have the brace off, and he’s able to do some ball-handling and shooting.”

5/23/23 statistics

Player	Score	PTS	FG (3PT)	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	+/-	MIN
Bam Adebayo (MIA)	99-116 L vs. BOS	10	4-7	5	0	1	0	4	-21	35
Tyler Herro (MIA)	99-116 L vs. BOS	DNP-Hand	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—

Next up in the NBA

No games on again until Thursday night. Go ahead and catch up on Ted Lasso.