Heat Culture

Yo Chowd Half fam… I have two words for you today… UHHHHH OHHHHHHHH.

I have two more words for you Chowds… HEAT CULTURE.

The hell happened to the Celtics last night? Well, besides getting lit up in a total and complete LASER SHOW. It was like a freaking EDM concert in TD Garden last night. Miami was out there DROPPING BOMBS. The Heat were MAKING IT RAIN. 

And look, it’s always gonna be tough any time a team catches fire like that and knocks in 23 treys in a road playoff game. But here’s a thought for the Celtics… maybe someone GET A HAND UP? I don’t know, crazy idea, maybe try to contest a shot? Especially when they all start going in? Maybe throw a mitt in the air? Maybe try closing somebody down?

I don’t want to take any credit away from Erik Spoelstra because he deserves all the credit. This dude is absolutely incredible. Every year around this time, Spo reminds us that might be the most underrated coach in all of pro sports AND the best coach in pro sports. He’s that good. 

That said, I’m not really sure he did anything all that special or complex or schematically brilliant last night. You don’t even need to take that from me, take it from him, because listen to how he explained the game plan during a TNT in-game interview. 

Yeah, the rest of the game wasn’t much different. Just hit the open shots they’re giving you worked for all four quarters last night. And that is not the best look for Joe Mazzulla and the Celtics. In fact it's a pretty bad look.

I’m not saying you should be in full-on panic mode, Chowd half FAM. Even if I know you’re already there. You still have the much better team on paper. Much better. Here’s your issue, Miami has the much better coach. The much much much better coach.

And I’m not trying to put this all on Joe Mazzulla, but dude, you just can’t blow a first round home game to the 8 seed, especially after they punked you last year in the Conference Finals. And you really can’t try to tell us afterwards that what we all watched didn’t happen.

Moderately to heavily contested? If "moderately to heavily contested" is your way of saying totally uncontested, then yes, I agree. Otherwise, the hell game were you watching Joe?  The heat just celtic’ed the Celtics.  The Celtics are supposed to be the best three point shooting team in the league. Three and d, yo. Three and dee. And the Celtics did neither. 

Yes, Miami made a conscious effort to shoot more... They made a conscious effort to TAKE THE WIDE OPEN SHOTS THEY WERE GIVEN. You just heard Spo lay it out. The Heat didn’t make a conscious effort to take more "moderately to heavily contested" shots. They made a conscious effort to take WIDE ASS OPEN shots and that really worked out for them because you kept giving them WIDE ASS OPEN shots.

Now that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily gonna hit better than 53% of those shots AGAIN like they did last night. Getting open looks is different from drilling those open looks. But again, once you see that they’ve clearly been instructed to take their wide ass open shots and they keep hitting their wide ass open shots, maybe change up the strategy. Maybe tell someone on the floor to get a hand up. 

The Celtics should be fine if they can get a hand up for the rest of the series, but then again, after what happened last year, I totally understand why my Half Chowd fam is in full on panic right now. And that's also why Jimmy Butler trolling the hell out of the Chowds on Instagram after the game last night cracks me up.

Last year after Boston got down 3-0, Jaylen Brown said "don't let us get one." So last night, Himmy Buckets posts that quote in a graphic with a pic of Jaylen Brown... Except with his own face photoshopped over Jaylen's face. With the caption: feeling cute, might delete later. Sikeeeee I ain’t deleting s***.

An amazing troll job by an amazing troll. And I say that in the most positive sense. It's Playoff Himmy managing to be Playoff Himmy even when he's not actually playing in the games. And it's incredible how this team is still effective and still dangerous and still living rent free in the heads of the Chowd Towners, even without Himmy out there. 

Two words to thank for that... HEAT CULTURE. And it's why my two words today for my Chowd half fam are uhhhhhhh ohhhhhh.

It might just be one game.  But if you’re the Celtics and you won 64 games and finished 14 ahead of the next closest team in the east, and you’re playing the team that did you last year in the playoffs and they’re without their franchise, there’s no way in hell that should have happened.  Even if it is just one game.  And it better just be one game, half fam, and you better do them in their house they way the just did you in yours or uhhhh hohhhhhh.  All the credit it in the world to Spo and the heat and absolute zero credit to the Celtics and what they did in the regular season.  You dominate all regular season to get the home court and it’s already gone.  Uhhh oh