If the Boston Celtics and their fans have a villain at the moment, it's Miami Heat star Caleb Martin who made a huge impact on the team's 111-101 win in Game 2 of the NBA Playoffs. After the game, Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra and Martin himself talk about his performance and the win as a whole as not a lot of people saw the upset coming at TD Garden.
Martin has tormented the Celtics on a multiple of occasions where it even goes back to the epic seven-game series last season in the Eastern Conference Finals where he was really good averaging close to 20 points and six rebounds per game. This includes a 26-point outing in Game 7 that ended Boston's playoff hopes after coming back down from a 3-0 series deficit.
Fast forward to this season and Game 1 last Sunday saw Martin and Boston star Jayson Tatum get into a collision that had people questioning if it was a “dirty” play, even though on the replay he was pushed by Jrue Holiday. This prompted a negative response in Game 2 from fans where every time he touched the ball, a rain of boos would shower the Heat star.
Erik Spoelstra talks about Martin's impact for Miami in Game 2 win
However, the reaction didn't bother Martin in the slightest as he scored 21 points, making seven of 12 shots from the field, but he was really efficient from three-point range. In a game where the Heat broke a playoff record for most three-pointers in a contest with 23, he contributed with five of them as Spoelstra said to ClutchPoints that he's the “ultimate X-factor.”
“He's a computer, he's the ultimate X-factor. It doesn't always mean that he's gonna score as many as he did tonight, but he's the X-factor of X factors,” Spoelstra said. “He's going to put his imprint on the game, he's always going to bring that competitive spirit, the leadership, his voice, that edginess. And it turned out to be those big threes and some of those scoring plays but he had his imprinted on the defensive side of the floor as well.”
As for Martin, he looked calm and collected when speaking to the media after the game as the Heat organization has a way to prevail once the cards are stacked against them. He would say that with all the drama surrounding him and Miami where they overcame the outside noise, that it “speaks more towards the mentality of the group.”
“Speak more towards the mentality of the group, No matter what, we've had this situation many times before, just you know, to stay with it,” Martin said. “Through bad games, through slumps including myself and just have the confidence in our group and our staff to put something together and put us in the right position to play well next game no matter what. We've always be able to do stuff like that because the approach is there.”
Martin talks about stealing one in Boston and coming back to Miami
It's an understatement how huge of an upset it was for Miami to steal one in Boston and come back home with all the momentum, even though they are still missing key players like Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier. Martin said to ClutchPoints that being on the Celtics home floor is a “tough place to play” and is glad “we're able to go back to our home crowd.”
“It's always a good thing if you get one on the road, especially here,” Martin said. “It's a tough, tough place to play and it's very tough team and so you always want to try to steal one and we were be able to do that. You know, now we're able to go back to our home crowd and hopefully be able to do the same. We just know what type of team we are and what type of approach we want in Game 3. So it's a game by game mentality for sure.”
While a good number of people thought the Heat would get swept, the team had other plans as this is now a competitive series at one win a piece. However, it's still a major uphill climb as Miami will look to beat Boston in a multitude of ways as their next opportunity is in Game 3 which takes place Saturday.
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