The Boston Celtics beat the Miami Heat 102-82 in Game 4 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals at TD Garden in Boston on Monday to tie the series 2-2.

The weird pattern of this series continued, as the team that won the previous game would unavoidably struggle in the following contest. Having won Game 3 109-103, the Heat shot 30-for-90 from the field in Game 4 on Monday night, trailed in rebounds 60-39 and were blocked 11 times. They missed all of their first 14 field goal (FG) attempts and only scored one point until three minutes and twenty-two seconds into the first quarter.

Bam Adebayo, who was the Heat's best-performing player with 31 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and four steals in Game 3, only got nine points and six rebounds on Monday. But he wasn't even the most disappointing player on the team's starting lineup. Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry combined got the same nine points. Meanwhile, P.J. Tucker and Max Strus both scored zero points.

The whole starting five of the Heat failed to score as much as Jayson Tatum alone, who had 31 points, eight rebounds and five assists for the Celtics. If it weren't for Victor Oladipo, Duncan Robinson and Caleb Marin who scored in double-digits off the bench, Monday's loss could have been much uglier for the Heat.

However, it was the Celtics' best performance either, especially compared with many of their other games in the playoffs this season. They shot only 8-for-34 from downtown and turned 14 offensive rebounds into no more than 10 second-chance points. Despite their huge lead in rebounds, they got fewer fast-break points than the Heat (12-9).

Of course, it's unfair to say the Celtics' performance didn't improve in this game. The return of Robert Williams III offered the team decent protection of the rim, enabled Al Horford to guard Adebayo and allowed coach Ime Udoka to keep Daniel Theis on the bench instead of becoming a punching bag on the floor. Meanwhile, Williams's presence as an efficient finisher under the hoop provided good vertical spacing to the Celtics.

With Marcus Smart sitting out Monday's game due to an ankle injury, Derrick White took his place in the Celtics' starting lineup. Though he was not in his best shooting form, White was the team's vanguard in showing aggressiveness. He scored the team's first seven points and made his first shot by charging the rim against the defense of Tucker in early offense.

With White, the Celtics had four players earn four or more free throws in Game 4, led by Tatum, who shot 14-for-16 at the free-throw line. The Heat complained about their deficit in free throw attempts 38-14, but they had only themselves to blame for lack of aggressiveness.

The Heat had Tyler Herro sit on Monday's game because of a groin injury. His absence was supposed to be an offensive loss for the team, but considering that he was underperforming in the three games he played in this series, averaging only 12.3 points and 0.33 triples, the Heat didn't suffer too much without him. In fact, the team didn't have to worry about Herro as a defensive vulnerability in Game 4.

One of the biggest problems the Heat had on Monday night was hesitation at the 3-point line. It's understandably not so easy to create completely open triples because many of the Celtics' defenders were fast in switching, but shooting was more challenging in the postseason. When Tucker, Gabe Vincent and Strus didn't shoot 3-pointers, they were very limited on the offensive front and encouraged the opponent's defenders to invest more attention and effort in Butler and Adebayo.

Game 5 of the East Finals will be at the FTX Arena in Miami on Tuesday. Since three of the past four games of the series were blowouts and the other one showed the Celtics falling apart in one quarter; there is not much to study and learn from. The competition will get slower, uglier and more physical in the playoffs, but the East Finals became like this because both the Celtics and the Heat did not perform consistently.