BOSTON (AP) – The Miami Heat beat Boston with an unprecedented barrage of three-pointers yesterday to erase the home-court advantage the Celtics worked all season to establish.
Tyler Herro had 24 points and 14 assists, hitting six of Miami’s 23 three-pointers – the most in a playoff game in franchise history – to lead the Heat to a 111-101 victory over top-seeded Boston and tie the first-round playoff series at one game apiece.
“It was a very good response,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “And then we also made some shots. It always looks better when you make shots.”
Bam Adebayo had 21 points and 10 rebounds, and new Celtics nemesis Caleb Martin also had 21 points for the Heat, who shot 53.5 per cent (23 of 43) from beyond the arc to bounce back after a Game 1 blowout. That broke Miami’s playoff record of 20 three-pointers, set against the Bucks in the 2021 first round.
“They obviously made a conscious effort to have free reign to shoot more,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said.
And shoot and shoot and shoot.
Playing their third straight game without playoff stalwart Jimmy Butler, who was injured in the opening play-in game, Miami shot better than 50 per cent from three-point range in each of the first three quarters (and a still productive four of 10 in the fourth).
After Boston cut an 11-point lead to six, 102-96, with 3:16 to play, Martin hit a three and Boston never got as close as two possessions again.
“You have to take ‘em, based on how they were playing us the first two games,” said Spoelstra, who saw Boston hit 22 three-pointers to Miami’s 12 in the opener. “I did not want to get annihilated in that department like we did the game before.”
Jaylen Brown scored 33 points for Boston. Jayson Tatum scored 28, showing no ill-effects of Martin’s hard foul that sent him crashing to the floor with under a minute to play in Boston’s 114-94 victory on Sunday.
Tatum got up off the parquet floor. But so did Miami.
“It seemed we couldn’t get them to miss,” Brown said. “They had a record-breaking night. They made a lot of shots that usually we’re comfortable with.”
The series moves to Miami for Games 3 and 4 tomorrow and Monday.
“It’s always a good thing if you can get one on the road,” Martin said. “You always look to try to steal one. We were able to do that.”
The Celtics won 64 games in the regular season to claim home-court advantage through the NBA Finals, but they didn’t make very good use of it on Wednesday despite a crowd that was still fired up over seeing their star land hard in the series opener.
