Bam Adebayo had quite the take on why the Miami Heat’s 20-point Game 1 loss to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals wasn’t closer: the Cs had that one measly 14-point run at the start of the game, otherwise, it would’ve been a 50-50 game.

“I feel like it’s a different ball game if they don’t get off to a hot start at the beginning. You know, like you said, we went on a run in the fourth,” Adebayo told reporters (h/t Inside The Celtics). “But, if that start doesn’t happen, if there’s a ball in the air or a ball on the floor and we get those 50-50 balls, it’s a different ballgame.”

It’s understandable to call out your own team for slipping up at various points in the game, but believing that the game would’ve played out the same way — with a fourth-quarter Heat run that certainly looked like the result of complacency following a 30-point Cs lead built up in the second half — is a pretty blatant cope.

Miami’s fourth quarter run should bother Boston, but Caleb Martin’s hard foul on Jayson Tatum, one possibly inadvertently caused by Jrue Holiday, in the final minute of Game 1 should motivate the Celtics to come out like a house of fire in Game 2; leaving no doubt that this series is one the Cs know they can’t lose.

Coming in as 15+-point favorites, Boston is fully expected to win. And win big. But they play the games for a reason, as the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals between these two teams showed firsthand less than a year ago.

Hopefully the copium is even stronger from Miami’s players after a similar performance from the Celtics in Game 2.

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