Rookie Payton Pritchard continued his early season stellar play, making a layup with less than a half second remaining on Wednesday night leading the Boston Celtics to a 107-105 win over the Miami Heat at American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida.
In a rematch of the Eastern Conference Finals back in September won by Miami in six games, Boston (6-3) got half their points from Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown in the first quarter leading the entire 12 minutes by as many as a dozen and 34-26 headed to the second. The Celtics opened the lead to 17 in that second quarter, before the Heat made a 13-4 run to close it out cutting it to eight at 53-45 at the halftime break. The hosts took their first lead using a 15-6 run to start the third when Jimmy Butler tipped in his own miss. Miami (3-4) went up as many as five, but the game was tied 80-80 headed for the fourth quarter. The game went back and fourth in the final period, with both teams holding a slim lead. Boston would finally make what looked to be the game winning run trailing 95-92 with 4:27 left. A pair of Brown three-pointers and another by Tatum sparked a 13-0 run over the next 3:10 to make it 105-95 in favor of the guests. The Heat wouldn’t give in as Duncan Robinson hit a three-pointer, and then converted a four point play next time down to cut it to 105-102 with 38.9 seconds remaining. After a failed Celtics possession, Miami tied it when Goran Dragic got two looks at a three to tie it and hit the second one with 13.4 seconds showing on the clock. Pritchard would clean up a driving layup that was missed by Marcus Smart, converting a layup of his own for the game winner leading Boston to their third straight win.
Tatum led the way in the win with a game high 27 points, five rebounds and four assists. Brown had a double double with 21 points and 12 rebounds. Daniel Theis was the only other Celtic player in double figures registering 13 points and five rebounds. Butler led Miami in the loss with 26 points, eight rebounds, and three assists. Boston is now 5-1 in their last six games and will return home to host the Washington Wizards on Friday night.
