Stars, studs and duds: Celtics can't maintain energy vs. Heat

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BOSTON – The Miami Heat come into the TD Garden short-handed, and get a win. Earlier this month, the Utah Jazz did the same.

Coincidence?

Not according to Celtics players, who believe their effort was nowhere close to where it needed to be in order to get the win against the Miami Heat.

Marcus Smart recognizes the effort against Miami wasn’t where it needs to be.

But don’t think for a minute that he accepts it.

“Listen, we’re in the NBA,” Smart said. “Every last person on that team is in the NBA; they’re here for a reason. Just because they don’t have all their players, doesn’t mean … we still gotta play and this team has shown us that twice, they beat us twice. If this is not a wake up call for us, then I don’t know what is.”

The Celtics had their moments against the Heat, as they opened with a 6-1 spurt and pushed their lead to double digits in the first.

But the lulls, both offensively and defensively, proved to be too much for the Celtics to overcome as they tried to rally furiously in the final minutes of play.

“We didn’t come with great energy the whole game,” said Boston’s Jaylen Brown. “We started off good and our energy just took a dip. If we want to win at a high level, we have to find a way to keep our energy high.

Here are the Stars, Studs and Duds from Boston’s 90-89 loss to the Miami Heat.

 

STARS

Kelly Olynyk

He becomes the latest ex-Celtic to return to the TD Garden and absolutely have a big-time performance in leading his new team to a victory. The 7-foot Olynyk finished with a career-high 32 points on 12-for-15 shooting, in addition to grabbing seven rebounds and dishing out a couple of assists.

Kyrie Irving

The could-have-been hero if his final shot of the night went down, Irving still had an impressive game offensively. He led all scorers with 33 points while dishing out five assists and grabbing four rebounds.

 

STUDS

Marcus Smart

It was an impressive night shooting the ball for Smart who tallied 15 points on 5-for-9 shooting from 3-point range. But Smart’s energy and hustle never quite resulted in the game-changing play or plays that the Celtics desperately needed.  That said, 15 points and six rebounds is a solid all-around performance.

Josh Richardson

Olynyk may have gotten most of the shine for his career night, but Richardson’s defense and solid scoring was huge for the Heat. He would finish with 19 points and six assists with just one turnover.

Jaylen Brown

He did most of his damage early on, scoring 12 of his 16 points in the first quarter while shooting 6-for-10 for the game. He also grabbed four rebounds along with having a pair of blocked shots.

 

DUDS

Al Horford

Even before he fouled out with more than six minutes to play, Horford was having a bad game for Boston. He would finish with just six points on 2-for-10 shooting. And Horford’s team-worst plus/minus for the game (-13) only amplified the struggles he endured on Wednesday against the Heat.

Dion Waiters

With Goran Dragic (elbow) out, Waiters was in more of a go-to role heading into the game. But at no point did Waiters have the kind of impact that we saw when he dropped 26 points on the Celtics last month. On Wednesday he finished with 10 points on 3-for-11 shooting.

Terry Rozier

So much for building off of the last game. After making headlines with his steal and subsequent game-winning dunk at Indiana on Monday, Rozier didn’t score a single point on Wednesday, missing all five of his shots from the field.

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