On Thursday, 14 July 2016, the Celtics and Heat met at North Highland Assembly of God's Church gymnasium for game one of their NOSBL XVI Eastern Division Playoffs.  The Celtics are the defending champions, but there are six other teams that are capable of winning on any given night with no exception to the Heat.  It was good to see the Heat with their complete roster in attendance.  The Celtics were missing Jerel Jackson. 

The starters for the Celtics were:  #23 Tim Sanks, #2 Steve Woodson, #1 Al Wilson, #15 Christopher None, and #8 Jerald Mahone.

The starters for the Heat were:  #11 Norman King, #3 Michael Brown, #13 Donald Brophy, #15 Johnny Sanchez, and #31 Felton Scott.

The officials for the game were:  Ice Elliott and Royzell Smith.

The game started with the Heat winning the tip-off, but failed to score.  The Celtics', Steve Woodson, scored the team's first 2-points.  Woodson was very active, on both ends of the court, and had to score more than usual due to the absence of Jerel Jackson.  The Heat came prepared for the challenge and initial shockwave coming from the Celtics.  Steve Woodson led the Celtics with 13 points and Tim Sanks added 11 points to keep the Heat off-balance.  The Heat responded with a larger lineup that established the team's first lead at 17 only to give it up at 18.  The Celtics would hold the lead for the rest of the half.  Having eight players to score, in the first half, was a good indicator that the Heat was prepared to play as a team.  Aside from Steve Woodson and Tim Sanks scoring for the Celtics, four additional players combined for 11 points.  The difference, in the half, was fouls.  The Celtics committed four team fouls resulting in three points.  The Heat committed nine team fouls that resulted in 7 points.  The first half ended with the Celtics 35 and the Heat 33.  No time outs were used by either team.

The second half gave both teams 20-minutes to play hard and win.  They gave each other and the fans all they had as they exchanged leads and tied scores several times.  The scores were tied at 39, 41, 46, and 59.  There were lead changes at 41 (Heat), 42 (Celtics), 46 (Heat), 48 (Heat), 62 (Heat), and and 64 (Celtics).  The scoring went basically the same with Tim Sanks and Steve Woodson leading the Celtics with 22 combined points.  The Heat did another impressive job of distributing the basketball by getting seven players into the scoring column.  Again, the disparity between the two teams continued to be in the area of fouls.  The Heat committed nine team fouls resulting in five points.  The Celtics committed four team fouls that resulted in zero points.  The Celtics outscored the Heat 34 - 32, in the second half, and captured a 69 - 65 victory.  Both teams played consistent halves with consistent fouling that made the difference.

The scorers for the Celtics were:  #23 Tim Sanks with 26 points, #2 Steve Woodson with 21 points, #00 Ralph Mathews with 8 points, #15 Christopher None with 6 points, #8 Jerald Mahone with 4 points, and #22 Johnny Vasquez with 4 points.

The scorers for the Heat were:  #3 Michael Brown with 15 points, #4 Bryan Short with 12 points, #11 Norman King with 10 points, #24 Sidney Dowlen with 8 points, #13 Donald Brophy with 6 points, #31 Felton Scott with 6 points, #27 Christopher Alexander with 5 points, and #15 Johnny Sanchez with 3 points.