Game 3 was stunning.
In my lifetime as an NBA purist/fan that beatdown was like no other in a conference final in a Game 3. Teams still have a pulse in a Game 3, but in this one the Miami Heat ripped the heart out of the overhyped Boston Celtics in front of the entire basketball universe.
This was a beatdown and a Roberto Duran ‘No Mas’ for the NBA history books. This was supposed to be the Celtics’ time after blowing a 2-0 NBA Finals lead to the Warriors last June.
Call it what you want. Coach it a massive coaching mismatch. Call it a laydown by Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown who combined were outscored by undrafted Gabe Vincent.
This was an indictment against the Boston Celtics’ gloryfied legacy of 17 NBA championships. Even Magic Johnson went on Twitter voicing his shock at how meek these Celtics were in a must win Game 3 on the road. This was a Miami team using four undrafted players to expose the Celtics in a game in which one would think ended this series last night in South Beach.
Austin Reaves should be on this Heat team. Gabe Vincent, Duncan Robinson, Max Strus, and Caleb Martin are all like Austin Reaves. That being, they play with a chip on their shoulder proving to the rest of the league they belong and have a place in the NBA.
It truly amazes me that the purported Mr. Rodgers GM in Oklahoma City didn’t use one of his many stockpiled second round draft picks to add one these five players into the soft Thunder culture. Nary a one of these magnificent role players who understand the game was drafted by Presti though…and for crying out loud Austin Reaves was making First Team All Big 12 just a few minutes down the road in Norman.
I’ll write more about Austin after the Lakers are finished off by Denver. But like I wrote earlier on my obscure underground blog….. I had serious misgivings about how much juice LeBron still has in his tank when he’s playing against good teams this late in the season.
The Celtics foolishly doubled Jimmy Butler and basically left Spoelstra’s Fab Four with space and time all over the floor. I seriously didn’t even know Duncan Robinson had all of this in him. The Celtics were so bad out there defensively they made Duncan look like Jimmy Chitwood.
Tyler Herro is sitting over on the bench injured while Duncan and these other three guys are basically one home game win away making their second NBA Finals in three seasons.
In my NBA fandom lifetime I do not remember a single time when both conference finals were 4-0 sweeps, yet here we are on the cusp of such with the favored Nuggets and the Cinderella Miami Heat each one win away from the NBA Finals.
With all due respect to Sacramento’s Mike Brown who was awarded the NBA Coach of the Year….. the actual Coach of the Year is Eric Spoelstra who BTW in his entire Hall of Fame NBA coaching career has never won the award.
I guess this shows how meaningless the award is in reality.