The first sign of surrender, the first indication that the Miami Heat’s four-year crusade of tormenting, baffling, frustrating and frightening the Celtics was over, was the opening moments of the fourth quarter — when Miami coach Erik Spoelstra left Bam Adebayo on the bench after playing the first 36 minutes.
Adebayo’s was Spoelstra’s only weapon to keep the Heat competitive in this series. And despite him playing every minute of the first three quarters, Miami trailed by 32 points.
It was time to concede. The Celtics had battered Miami in four of their five games, racing to big early leads, flirting with 30-point margins and then executing in the final minutes when the Heat made their customary runs.
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But Miami was out of runs Wednesday at TD Garden. The Heat had nothing left because the Celtics pelted them with body blows throughout this series. No junky zone defense, or Caleb Martin making a Stephen Curry transformation, or hard, borderline dirty fouls would unnerve the Celtics as it had in the past, as the hosts rolled to a 118-84 series-clinching triumph.
Jimmy Butler was back in Miami rehabilitating a knee injury and Terry Rozier, acquired to give the Heat a backcourt boost, missed the whole series with a mysterious neck injury. That could have encouraged the Celtics to exhale, lose focus and play with passion and fortitude only when required.
But this team has learned its lessons the hard way, especially having to watch the Heat play the Denver Nuggets in last year’s NBA Finals because the Celtics tricked off the first two games of the Eastern Conference Finals and quit in the third.
This edition crushed the Heat like a grape, jumping out to a 55-25 lead and then never relenting, even when Miami intensified its defense and slowed the game down. Derrick White knocked down five 3-pointers, Sam Hauser added five more, and Jaylen Brown scored 17 of his 25 points in the first half as the Celtics played with a maturity and seriousness not seen in last year’s playoffs.
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They have definitely taken a step forward.
“They do a little bit of everything. Physically, mentally, they mess with you, make you hesitate, make you think, they’re good at time, give credit to their coaching staff over there,” Brown said of the Heat. “It’s a combination of physically and mentally just graduating, and I feel like we executed down the stretch, and now we advance to the next round.”
That word “graduating” is interesting because this was a commencement of sorts. Two years ago, the Celtics lost Game 6 at home to the Heat before holding on in Game 7 after nearly blowing a late lead. If Butler’s pull-up 3-pointer goes down, Miami is headed to the Finals.
In this series, the Celtics left no doubts after losing Game 2 following a historic shooting night from the Heat. They outscored Miami by 68 points in the final three games. Miami led once (3-2 in Game 4) in the final three games.
“I think it’s all business,” Brown said. “It’s a lot of history between us, back and forth, but it didn’t matter who it was, we just had to get the job done.”
When asked whether this was a graduation from last year, Brown said: “Part of it. I think we still have tests to go through throughout this playoffs. But I think we’re up to the challenge.”
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He then corrected himself: “We’re graduating; we haven’t graduated.”
It was critical the Celtics didn’t draw this series longer than it should have been. They at least get a couple of days off before having to face the Orlando-Cleveland winner, allowing the injured Kristaps Porzingis to get more rehab days without missing games.
But it was also important the Celtics overcame their biggest rival. It was destiny they would face Miami in these playoffs. Any championship run without overcoming their biggest adversary would have been a tad bit less rewarding. They won’t face a better prepared team or a better coach or more creative defenses.
“I think it’s like my fourth time in five years playing them in the playoffs, so I was thinking the play-in game, they were trying to figure out the standings. I just had my mind made up that we was going to play Miami,” Jayson Tatum said.
“I wanted to play Miami in a sense that maybe last year, playing against Atlanta (in the first round), we might have relaxed a little bit. But knowing the history with Miami and how hard they play and how well coached they are, for a first-round matchup, that regardless of the seed, we were going to have to be ready to play, ready to fight.”
The Celtics lost Game 2 not because they lost focus or let down. They lost because they didn’t adjust to Miami’s game plan. Their response over the next three games left no doubt they had evolved from last season.
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“Let’s not take anything away from Boston: They’ve been the best team in basketball all season long,” Spoelstra said. “They played very good basketball and probably had something to motivate them even more against us.
“I will not watch one minute of their games, but they’ll probably do this to several teams from here on out. You could sense they wanted this to end right now and not let this get back to Miami. That’s a sign of a mature team.”
The Celtics won this series with talent and maturity. They have taken a step forward from last year. The journey is far from over, but this was an encouraging first major step.
Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at gary.washburn@globe.com. Follow him @GwashburnGlobe.
