The Miami Heat eliminated the home-court advantage the Boston Celtics had worked so hard to build all season long on Wednesday night by defeating them with an unparalleled flurry of three-pointers.
With 24 points and 14 assists, Tyler Herro helped the Heat defeat top-seeded Boston 111-101, tying the first-round NBA playoff series at one game apiece. Herro also made six of Miami’s 23 three-pointers in the game, which is a team record.
Erik Spoelstra, the coach of the Heat, praised the team’s excellent response. “After that, we also took a few pictures. Making photos always results in a better appearance.”
The Heat rebounded from a Game 1 blowout with 21 points and 10 rebounds from Bam Adebayo and 21 points from Caleb Martin, their new Celtics rival. The Heat shot 53.5% (23 of 43) from beyond the arc. That shattered Miami’s postseason record of 20 three-pointers, which it had established in the 2021 first round against the Bucks.
The Celtics’ coach Joe Mazzulla stated, “They obviously made a conscious effort to have free reign to shoot more.”
And keep shooting without stopping.
Miami, without star player Jimmy Butler for the third straight game due to injury sustained in the first play-in game, hit over 50% from three-point range in each of the first three quarters (and a still-productive 4 of 10 in the fourth).
Martin’s three-pointer with 3:16 remaining trimmed Boston’s eleven-point advantage to six, 102-96, and Boston never got as near as two points again.
After seeing Boston shoot 22 three-pointers to Miami’s 12 in the opening game, Spoelstra stated, “You have to take ’em, based on how they were playing us the first two games.” “I did not want to get annihilated in that department like we did the game before.”
For Boston, Jaylen Brown scored 33 points. In Boston’s 114-94 victory on Sunday, Jayson Tatum scored 28 points while appearing unaffected by Martin’s harsh foul that left him flying to the floor with less than a minute remaining.
Tatum rose from the hardwood floor.
However, Miami also did so.
Brown remarked, “It seemed like we couldn’t get them to miss.” “That was a record-breaking evening for them. They took a number of photographs that we would normally feel comfortable with.”
Games 3 and 4 of the series are scheduled for Miami on Saturday and Monday.
“It’s always a good thing if you can get one on the road,” Martin stated. “You attempt to steal one every time you look. We succeeded in doing that.”
Despite a crowd still enthused after witnessing their hero take a hard fall in the series opener, the Celtics did not make use of their home-court advantage in the NBA Finals, even though they won 64 games during the regular season.
On Sunday, Tatum recorded his first-ever postseason triple-double, with 23 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists in a game that saw Boston lead by as many as 34 points in the half. But the real concern was how he would recover from Martin undermining him when he went for a rebound.
Tatum scored 14 points in the opening quarter of Game 2. Additionally, Martin was vociferously jeered each time he touched the ball.
All it did was rekindle his energy and that of the Heat, who needed to win a play-in game in order to have a chance to play the Celtics.
“He is an adversary. He is the ultimate X factor, according to Spoelstra. “He’s the X factor of X factors.”
With two minutes remaining in the first half, Miami was ahead by five, 55-50, but Brown quickly opened up a four-point advantage with three straight three-pointers. Although Brown missed a three-pointer on the subsequent possession, his layup in the closing seconds made the halftime score 61-58.
With less than four minutes remaining in the third, Miami embarked on a 10-0 run to grab an 82-70 lead, which the Celtics later sliced to six.
Tatum stated, “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy.” “These two franchises have a rich history together, particularly in the recent past. The wonderful thing about it is that nothing ever turns out exactly how people want it to.”
