Jaylen Brown had a season high 31 points and Kemba Walker had 28 on Wednesday night as the Boston Celtics overcame a slow start to improve to 8-0 at home this season with a 112-93 win over the Miami Heat at TD Garden in Boston.
Miami (15-6) had an eight point lead in the first quarter which they held the same lead after the opening 12 minutes. Kelly Olynyk gave the Heat their largest lead with a finger roll layup 3:30 into the second quarter at 35-24. Boston came storming back and took their first lead since very early on when Walker hit a pair of free throws to make it 40-39 to cap off a 16-4 run. Jayson Tatum and Brown later knocked down three-pointers in the last 1:44 of the quarter, and the Celtics led by eight at the break.
The hosts continued to build the lead in the third going up 16 on a Brown layup off an ally-oop pass from Tatum about halfway through the quarter. Miami did cut the lead to five with 2:32 to go on a Jimmy Butler dunk part of 16-3 Heat run, but the Celtics used a run of their own of 11-3 to push the advantage back to 13 by the end of the period. 13 would be the closest the visitors would stay, as Boston stretched to as much as a 23 point lead in the fourth quarter for their second straight win.
Brown shot 10-20 from the floor and 5-9 from three-point range to lead the 15-5 Celtics, also adding four rebounds. Walker was 9-17 and 6-11 from the three-point arc while also adding four rebounds, seven assists, and two steals. Butler had a big night for the Heat in the road loss scoring a game high 37 points on 12-18 shooting and 6-10 from three-point territory. Butler also added six rebounds, four assists, and two steals. The former Celtic Olynyk added 12 points and four rebounds. Boston will host Denver on Friday night at 8 p.m.
