BOSTON — A familiar atmosphere emanated from the visitors’ locker room of TD Garden on Wednesday night. The Miami Heat, just as they did after Game 7 of last season’s Eastern Conference finals, raucously celebrated another road victory over the Boston Celtics. Players cheered. Pacificos flowed. Music blared.
This might have been only Game 2 of a first-round NBA playoff series, but these Heat had extra fuel.
“We code red,” one player could be heard shouting from the locker room following Miami’s 111-101, series-tying upset. “We code-redding s***.”
He was referencing a comment made by former Celtics forward turned broadcaster Brian Scalabrine in the aftermath of Boston’s blowout Game 1 win. Scalabrine had called Caleb Martin‘s undercut of Celtics star Jayson Tatum “shady,” suggesting that Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra used a late timeout to order a so-called “code red.”
Both teams spent their days off downplaying the faux controversy, only the Heat took it to heart.
And why not? They were double-digit underdogs for the second straight game. This was supposed to be the league’s most lopsided series, what with Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier both sidelined for the eighth seed. The talent gap against the 64-win Celtics seemed insurmountable.
Oh, how the tables have turned.
Sometimes all it takes is a simple math lesson. Boston made 22 3-pointers to Miami’s 12 in Game 1. Anyone who listened to the Heat repeatedly note that 30-point margin in Sunday’s postgame interviews could see the adjustment coming Wednesday: Fire at will. And that they did, making a franchise playoff-record 23 triples on 43 attempts (53.5%) to beat the Celtics by 33 points at the arc.
“Honestly, I thought we generated the same looks in the first game,” said Tyler Herro, whose 24 points (on 6-for-11 shooting from 3) led Miami. “Guys, including myself, just didn’t take them. The talk amongst the team was to be aggressive, take the open shots. If they give it to us, don’t hesitate. Let it go.”
“That’s part…
