With all signs pointing to a gentleman’s sweep for the Boston Celtics, can the ‘Zombie Heat’ sneak up again?

Catch the game tomorrow at 7:30 AM, Manila time.

AWAY: Miami Heat (1-3)

Projected starting five:

• Tyler Herro
• Caleb Martin
• Haywood Highsmith
• Nikola Jovic
• Bam Adebayo

It has been pretty clear by now that the Game 2 upset was an outlier. This injury-riddled Heat squad is simply far too undermanned for the Celtics. Things even turned worse for Miami as rookie standout Jaime Jaquez Jr. is now hurt too and will be out for Game 5. He was averaging 14.0 points per game through three games before being injured midway into Game 4.

As always, it’s next man up. Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro remain as the Heat’s headliners, with the former having 22.3 PPG, 10.5 RPG, 3.3 APG in the series, and the latter adding 17.3 PPG and 6.0, alongside a terrible 40.7% clip. Caleb Martin Takes Jaquez Jr.’s place as the probable third scorer, which is literally 50-50, however, as he has posted 4, 21, 5 ,and 18 points in through the first four games.

Nikola Jovic, Delon Wright, and Haywood Highsmith make up the other key rotation guys. They’ll need to do plenty of dirty work, though, on top of helping the main guys in the offense.

Miami is averaging 94.3 PPG in the series.

HOME: Boston Celtics (3-1)  

Projected starting five:

• Jrue Holiday 
• Derrick White
• Jaylen Brown
• Jayson Tatum
• Kristaps Porzingis (out) / Al Horford

The Celtics have showcased back-to-back strong performances after getting jumped in Game 2. They have an average winning margin of 17 points in Games 3 and 4, and led by as much as 29 and 28 points in those contests, respectively.

All that now has the group feeling even better as they are back in beantown up 3-1, enjoying a fun opportunity to shut the door on their archnemesis. The two Jays – Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown – should be quite eager to lead the team. Both are putting up 22.3 PPG in the series and could look to score more with Kristaps Porzingis (calf) sitting out tomorrow. 

Derrick White may be in the mix again as he just eased past the Heat defense in Game 4, en route to a blistering 38-point night, which included eight threes.Al Horford will take Porzingis’ spot and role in the offense, while also remaining valuable on defense. Jrue Holiday has been an afterthought in the series offensively (7.5 PPG, 31.4 FG%), but his veteran presence and defense is probably enough to offset the rough patches.

PICKS:

Spread: Celtics (-14)Over/Under: Over (198.5)