Jimmy Butler helped fuel a huge third quarter on Tuesday night finishing with a game high 41 points, leading the Miami Heat to a 118-107 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals at FTX Arena in Miami, Florida.
Boston, playing without Al Horford (health and safety protocols) and Marcus Smart (foot sprain), picked up where they left off in a Game 7 victory over Milwaukee scoring the first seven points of the game. Miami didn’t get on the board until almost three minutes in. The Heat came to life and took their only lead of the first half on a fast break dunk by Caleb Martin 23-21, but the C’s scored seven of the final nine points of the opening 12 minutes to take a 28-25 advantage. The guests increased that to 13 in the second on a layup by Payton Pritchard. Aaron Nesmith also played some big minutes off the bench in the period. The green shot 59% over the 24 minutes, and 21 points from Jayson Tatum had them up 62-54 at the halftime break.
Things went bad in the third quarter for Boston, as Miami went on a 22-2 run over the first six minutes to take a 12 point lead finished off by a fastbreak dunk from Butler. The Celtics took over seven minutes to get their first field goal of the second half, but scored the next nine in a row to get within 76-73 on a putback layup by Daniel Theis, but that is as close as they’d get the rest of the way. The Heat kept storming ending the third on a 17-3 surge, 39-14 in the period for a 17 point lead headed to the fourth. The +25 in the quarter was a playoff franchise record for Miami. The two made field goals from Boston (2-15) was the worst quarter for them since 2018. It was a 20 point spread when Tyler Herro got fouled on a three-pointer and hit all three free throws, but the C’s would keep battling cutting it to nine on two different occasions and to seven on a Pritchard three-pointer with 1:28 left. The hosts sewed up the victory with a couple of free throws and a Butler layup with less than a minute remaining.
Tatum led Boston in the loss with 29 points, eight rebounds, six assists, and four steals. Jaylen Brown had 24 points and 10 rebounds. Robert Williams III, who missed the final four games of the series with Milwaukee, scored 18 points, grabbed nine rebounds, and had two blocked shots in his return. Pritchard also put in 18 points with five rebounds and four assists. Butler hit 12-19 from the floor in the win and 17-18 from free throw line. He filled up the stat sheet by adding nine rebounds, five assists, four steals, and three blocks. Four other players scored in double figures in Herro (18), Gabe Vincent (17), Max Strus (11), and Bam Adebayo (10). Miami is now 7-0 at home this postseason, winning six of those by double digits. The third quarter performance by the Celtics is the second worst in franchise history in the playoffs, trailing a 40-13 (-27) second quarter manhandling by the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 2 of the 2017 Eastern Conference Finals. Game 2 of this series will be Thursday night at 8:30 p.m., where Boston hopes to have Horford and Smart back in action.
