At halftime on Wednesday night, the Celtics were in the lead by nine points. At the end of the third quarter, the Celtics were down by 12 points.
It wasn't nice, but the Heat beat the Celtics badly in the third quarter and held off a late surge from Boston to win Game 1 on the road, 123-116.
The Celtics won't lose their cool, that much is certain. In the previous series, they dropped both Games 1 and 5 at home.
However, the Celtics were able to join the 20% of historical teams that were still able to win series despite being down 3-2 for the second consecutive year. For this Celtics team, a 1-0 series deficit is obviously not a catastrophe.
But that's really where the good vibes stop. In the first game of the series, the Heat played with more vigor and did a better job of following their strategy than Boston.
Therefore, it was odd, to say the least, when Celtics first-year head coach Joe Mazzulla painted a positive picture of his team's play after the team's defeat by a score of 123–116.