The Boston Celtics led from start to finish and dominated the Miami Heat in Game 1. But the Heat made sure Game 2 was different, and made an impressive effort to make it an ultra-competitive affair that included 13 lead changes.
The result was also different.
The short-handed eighth-seeded Heat bounced back from a 20-point loss in Game 1, taking home-court advantage to beat the top-seeded Celtics 111-101 in Game 2 on Wednesday night at TD Garden and even That won in the first round also. Playoff series 1–1.
The Heat did this by shooting 23 of 43 (53.5 percent) from three-point range in a playoff game, setting a new franchise record. It also tied for the second-most threes made by the Heat in any game in franchise history.
“It was a great response with the connectivity, the effort, all that stuff,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after the win in Boston. “And then we made some shots, too. It always looks better when you make some shots.”
Trailing by three points at halftime, the Heat took control of the game by outscoring the Celtics 27–18 in the third quarter and entered the fourth quarter ahead by six points.
Leading by 11 points in the fourth quarter, the Heat took the lead the rest of the way and escaped with the upset victory. Miami held Boston to just 40 points in the second half.
Playing without two of their best players in Jimmy Butler (sprained MCL) and Terry Rozier (neck strain), the Heat still had enough players to make quality contributions throughout the rotation.
Five Heat players scored in double figures and three Heat players scored more than 20 points.
Tyler Herro led the way for the Heat with a team-high 24 points and a career-high 14 assists.
Bam Adebayo added 21 points on 9 of 13 shooting from the field and 10 rebounds.
Caleb Martin recorded 21 points and shot 5 of 6 from three.
For the Celtics, Jaylen Brown (33 points) and Jayson Tatum (28 points) combined to score 61 points. But the rest of the Celtics’ roster scored only 40 points on 14 of 37 (37.8 percent) from the field in Game 2.
Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis was limited to six points on 1 of 9 shooting from the field. Boston fell by 32 points in Game 2 with Porzingis on the court.
On Wednesday, the Celtics lost their fifth game at home this season. Boston finished the regular season with an NBA-best 37–4 record at home.
“It’s always a good thing if you find someone on the street, especially here,” Martin said. “It’s a tough, tough place to play against a very tough team. You will always try to steal at least one, and we were able to do that.
The series now shifts to Miami for the next two games, with Game 3 to be played on Saturday at Kasia Center (6 p.m., TNT and Bally Sports Sun).
Five takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Celtics on Wednesday:
After being outscored by 30 points from three-point range in Game 1, the Heat flipped the script.
In an effort to tilt the math in their favor against a Celtics team that is known for taking and making a lot of three-pointers, the Heat shot a high volume of three-pointers in Game 2. In fact, 16 of Miami’s first 20 shots on Wednesday came from three-point range.
The Heat also made a lot of them, shooting 13 of 24 (54.2 percent) from behind the arc in the first half of Game 2 to set a new franchise record for most threes in any playoff half.
The Heat continued to take and make threes in the second half, shooting 10 of 19 (52.6 percent) on threes in the final two quarters and setting a new franchise record for most threes in a playoff game with 23 from deep on Wednesday. , It also marked the most three-pointers made by the Heat in any game this season.
“Those are available shots,” Spoelstra said of the Heat’s three-pointers in Game 2. You have to trust, whether it succeeds or fails. It’s the right play and you have to make that play over and over again, and that’s what we were doing tonight.”
With Boston shooting 12 of 32 (37.5 percent) from three, the Heat went from deep in Game 2 to defeat the Celtics 69–36.
Herro made a team-high six threes on 11 attempts for the Heat. Martin hit five threes. And Jaime Jacquez Jr., Nikola Jovic and Haywood Highsmith each lost three wickets.
The Heat improved to 19-7 on the season while shooting better than 40 percent from three-point range.
The Heat’s incredible three-point shooting performance negated the Celtics’ 46–26 lead in the paint in Game 2. Miami won Wednesday despite making just five shots at the rim.
With Butler sidelined, the duo of Adebayo and Herro stepped up to lead the way for the Heat and bring about a signature playoff moment.
After combining for 35 points on 31 shots in Game 1, Adebayo and Herro combined for 45 points on 26 shots in Game 2.
Adebayo was effective around the basket, making 8 of 11 shots in the paint. He scored eight points on 4-of-5 shooting in the fourth quarter, while also defending Tatum for most of the game.
“He was great when we needed to settle it and he went straight to his spot and was able to get some relief points for us,” Spoelstra said of Adebayo.
Herro did it all for the Heat’s offense, scoring a team-high 24 points and dishing out a team-high 14 assists. This is his third playoff double-double recorded in his career and his first with more than 10 assists.
Herro did most of his scoring from three-point range, making 18 of his 24 points from behind the arc along with a team-high six made threes.
“Based on how we look right now (without Butler and Rozier), he’s going to be involved in some way and sometimes he’s going to make the right play over and over again,” Spoelstra said. . “He did it tonight.”
In Game 2, the Heat outscored the Celtics by 23 points in the 38 minutes Adebayo and Herro played together.
“I think we complement each other,” Adebayo said about playing with Herro.
Martin was arguably the Heat’s most valuable player in last season’s Eastern Conference Finals series against the Celtics. Martin’s play in Game 2 of this year’s series against the Celtics brought back memories of that time.
Almost exactly 11 months ago, Martin was putting the finishing touches on the best basketball game of his life. On May 29, Martin recorded 26 points on 11-of-16 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 shooting from three, 10 rebounds, three assists and one steal, leading the Heat to a win over the Celtics at TD Garden. got help. In Game 7 of last season’s East Finals.
Martin averaged 19.3 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game in the East Finals, while shooting an ultra-efficient 60.2 percent from the field and 22 of 45 (48.9 percent) from three-point range. Butler was named East Finals MVP, but Martin finished second in the voting.
While scoring only four points in Game 1 on Sunday to start this year’s playoff series against Boston, Martin’s most memorable play in that loss was his hard foul on Tatum that drew scrutiny from the Celtics.
But Martin put the Game 2 performance in the past to be reminiscent of last season’s East Finals.
The Celtics crowd booed Martin every time he touched the ball in the wake of a hard foul on Tatum in the final minutes of Game 1. Martin scored 21 points on 12 field-goal attempts on Wednesday. He made five threes, but was also responsible for two of the Heat’s five threes from inside the restricted area in Game 2.
“He’s a competitor, he’s the ultimate X factor,” Spoelstra said of Martin. “It doesn’t always mean he’ll score as much as he did tonight. But he is the X Factor of the X Factor.
The Heat’s last two first-round picks are showing encouraging signs to start the playoffs.
Jaquez followed up his 16-point NBA playoff debut on Sunday with a total of 14 points, two rebounds, one assist and one steal in Game 2. He made only 4 of 13 shots from the field, but hit a key three-pointer to give the Heat the lead. Lead by nine with 5:37 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Jovic finished Game 2 with 11 points, nine rebounds, six assists, three steals and one block.
Both Jacquez and Jovic have also started for the Heat in the first two games of the series. Jacquez is starting in place of the injured Butler and Jovic has been playing as a full-time starter for the past few months.
With Wednesday’s upset win, the Heat avoided a situation from which many NBA teams have not been able to recover.
Entering this year’s playoffs, teams that lose the first two games of a best-of-7 series have lost the series 92.1 percent (27-314) of the time.
The good thing for the Heat is that they avoided a 0-2 deficit with a Game 2 win.
The Heat’s history also shows how tall the odds may have been, as only once in franchise history have they rallied to win a best-of-7 playoff series after losing the first two games. This happened in the 2006 NBA Finals, when the Heat came back from a 2–0 series deficit against the Dallas Mavericks to win four consecutive games and claim their first NBA championship behind the greatness of Dwyane Wade.
The Heat lost the other six best-of-7 playoff series to fall behind 2–0.
As for the other series in the Heat’s half of the East bracket, the fourth-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers hold a 2-0 series lead over the fifth-seeded Orlando Magic. The winner of the Heat-Celtics series will play the winner of the Cavaliers-Magic series in the second round.
This story was originally published April 24, 2024, 9:47 pm.
