The Miami Heat did it again. Down by 12 in the fourth quarter, Miami used a late 18-4 run to take a 2-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference Finals with a 111-105 win over the Boston Celtics at TD Garden on Friday night.
Miami would use an early 9-2 run in the opening minutes of the first quarter to take a seven point lead. They would lead by as many as eight as Boston got off to a slow start, but the Celtics would turn it on in the last 2:48 of the period and also stretching into the second. They ended the first on an 11-2 run capped off by a three-pointer and two free throws by Tatum to take back the lead 25-24. That spurt was extended as they scored the first 10 points of the second (21-2 run overall) to extend their advantage to 11 at 35-24 and would lead by as many as 12. The Heat weren’t about to be satisfied with just taking the road game one win, and would put together a 19-2 run of their own over the next 4:41 capped off by a jumper from Caleb Martin to take a five point lead 47-42. The guests would go into the halftime break up 54-50 helped by a combined 26 points from Martin (14) and Jimmy Butler (12).
Boston again would take the lead back when Tatum drove the lane for a dunk at 61-60 with 7:17 left in the third quarter. A 10-0 run gave the Celtics some breathing room capped off by a Marcus Smart three-pointer at 79-68 with 2:39 to go. The hosts would lead by eight entering the fourth. A dunk by Robert Williams III matched the biggest lead of the game 89-77 with 10:35 to play, but Miami wasn’t about to be outdone. The Heat down 96-87 would make that 18-4 run over a span of 5:42, and a putback dunk by Bam Adebayo had them up 105-100 with just 55 seconds remaining. Tatum got fouled on a three-point attempt on the other end and hit all three free throws, but a Gabe Vincent jumper and 4-4 from the line by Vincent and Max Strus in the closing moments sealed another road win for the eighth seeded Heat.
Tatum would lead Boston in the loss with 34 points, 13 rebounds, and eight assists. He was 0-3 from the floor (five points from foul line) with two turnovers though in the fourth quarter. Jaylen Brown added 16 points, Williams III and Malcolm Brogdon had 13 each, and Derrick White contributed 11 points. Butler filled up the stat sheet finishing with 27 points, eight rebounds, six assists, three steals, and two blocked shots in the Miami win. Martin ended up with 25 points. Adebayo had his best game of the playoffs with 22 points, 17 rebounds, and nine assists. Duncan Robinson and Strus also got into double figures with 15 and 11 points respectively. The Heat when up 2-0 in a series at any point in the postseason have won all 19 of those series, the most by any team without a loss in NBA history. Game three is Sunday night in Miami at 8:30 p.m. The Heat are 6-0 at home in this years playoffs.
Story by Chris Lessner/Highlight video courtesy of the NBA website
