Kendrick Perkins has fired up take about Celtics after Game 2 win vs. Heat

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The Boston Celtics responded to their Game 1 loss in the Eastern Conference Finals in impressive fashion Thursday night as they cruised to a 127-102 win over the Miami Heat at FTX Arena.

Boston jumped out to a 70-45 halftime lead and never looked back. Jayson Tatum scored a team-leading 27 points. Jaylen Brown poured in 24 points, and so did Marcus Smart, who was one rebound short of a triple-double. Grant Williams (19 points) and Payton Pritchard (10 points) played well off the bench. Al Horford played phenomenal defense.

Forsberg: Marcus Smart has quieted his doubters as Celtics' true PG

It was one of the Celtics' best performances of the 2022 NBA playoffs, and it was enough evidence for Kendrick Perkins to claim Boston is the best of the four teams remaining in the postseason.

"What we're witnessing now is a team that has defensive greatness written all over it," Perkins said Friday morning on ESPN show "First Take". "When you look at their personnel, starting with the Defensive Player of the Year in Marcus Smart, watching him guard multiple positions and being the heart and soul of that defense. And then we're also watching two two-way players in Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, both of them excelling on the wing. And now you have that interior presence that's still versatile enough to go out and switch on pick-and-rolls in Al Horford and Robert Williams.

"And then you add a guy off the bench in Grant Williams, who's becoming the ultimate 3-and-D guy. I'm looking at this Celtics team -- and we can all talk about offense, shot making and getting hot from the 3-point line -- but championships are won on the defensive end. Right now, what I'm witnessing from the Celtics is a championship-caliber defense. And whether it's the Miami Heat, Golden State Warriors or the Dallas Mavericks, I don't see any one of those teams being able to get their offense off against this stellar defense and this clinic the Celtics have displayed throughout the playoffs." 

The Celtics' defense is without a doubt the team's strength, and that was very evident in Game 2 when Smart and Horford both returned to the lineup after missing Game 1. 

Even Jimmy Butler had plenty of praise for Marcus Smart after Game 2

The Heat shot 5-for-20 when Horford or Smart was the primary defender in Thursday night's matchup.

It's going to be very difficult for any of the remaining three teams in the playoffs to beat the Celtics four times in a seven-game series if Boston plays anywhere near this level on the defensive end of the floor. No other team has the kind of length, athleticism and intelligence on defense that Boston does.

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