Miami Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. (11) and Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) box each other out during the first half of a game on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, at the Kaseya Center in downtown Miami, Fla.
Alie Skowronski
askowronski@miamiherald.com
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 147-129 loss to the Boston Celtics (51-25) on Wednesday night at Kaseya Center to fall to 1-1 on its three-game homestand. The Heat (40-37) now enters a two-day break before closing the homestand on Saturday against the Washington Wizards:
The Heat put together one of its best three-point shooting performances in franchise history and still were blown out by the Celtics, dropping to 2-8 in its last 10 games.
The Heat went 24 of 47 (51.1 percent) from three-point range to tie its franchise record for three-point makes in a game. Miami also made 24 threes in three other games — a Dec. 1, 2025 win over the Los Angeles Clippers, a Dec. 4, 2024 win over the Los Angeles Lakers and a Dec. 14, 2022 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
But the Heat still lost by 18 points on Wednesday because it couldn’t stop the Celtics’ offense. It marked the most points that an NBA team has ever lost a game by when hitting at least 24 threes, as teams are now 117-10 when making 24 or more threes in a game in league history.
The Celtics finished with 147 points on 58.3 percent shooting from the field and 21-of-44 (47.7 percent) shooting on threes. Boston ended up outscoring Miami 70-40 on twos, including 58-36 in the paint.
The 147 points are the third-most that the Heat has ever allowed in a game, two points away from the franchise record of 149 points allowed that was set just last week in Friday’s loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“We outshot them from the three-point line. Turnovers about the same. A lot of areas about the same, offensive rebounding,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “But the two-point field goals, they made a heck of a lot more than we did. Either at the rim or on pull-ups and all of that.”
The first quarter was especially ugly for the Heat.
The Celtics exploded for an eye-opening 53 points in the opening period on scorching 20-of-28 (71.4 percent) shooting from the field and 11-of-15 (73.3 percent) shooting on threes to blitz the Heat and take a 20-point lead into the second quarter. In the high-scoring first quarter, Jaylen Brown totaled 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field and 2-of-3 shooting on threes, and Sam Hauser recorded 17 points on 5-of-5 shooting on threes.
The Celtics’ 53 points in Wednesday’s first quarter is the most points that the Heat has ever allowed in any quarter. It’s also just the second time that the Heat has allowed 50 or more points in a quarter in a franchise history, with the other such occurrence coming in January 1990.
The Heat showed more fight in the second quarter, holding the Celtics to 27 points. But the Celtics still entered halftime with a big 80-57 advantage in large part because of its dominant first period.
The Celtics’ 80 points in Wednesday’s first half are tied for the fourth-most that the Heat has ever allowed through the first two quarters of a game.
The Heat made a third-quarter push to get back into the game, putting together its own impressive shooting display in the period.
Miami shot an incredible 11 of 15 from three-point range in the third quarter to outscore the Celtics 45-32 in the period and enter the fourth quarter trailing by just 10 points. Heat guard Davion Mitchell scored 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting from behind the arc in the third quarter.
Miami Heat guard Davion Mitchell (45) reaches to save the ball during the first half of a game against the Boston Celtics on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, at the Kaseya Center in downtown Miami, Fla. Alie Skowronski askowronski@miamiherald.com
Guard Tyler Herro then hit a three to pull the Heat within nine points with 10:41 left in the fourth quarter.
But that’s the closest the Heat would get, as the Celtics responded with a 7-0 run to extend their lead back up to 16 a few minutes later and put the game away. Boston’s lead grew to as large as 21 in the final minutes.
“It didn’t feel like we would out-shoot them from the three-point line, certainly the way that game started,” Spoelstra said. “But we really needed to have a better start to the fourth quarter. And we weren’t able to do it. You have to credit them as well. They started making shots. We missed some shots during that stretch.
“We just couldn’t get enough made shots to get that thing to under five to make it interesting.”
Brown finished with a game-high 43 points for the Celtics.
Celtics forward Jayson Tatum contributed a triple-double stat line of 25 points, 18 rebounds and 11 assists.
For the Heat, Bam Adebayo recorded a team-high 29 points on 10-of-21 shooting from the field and 5-of-10 shooting on threes to go with 10 rebounds, two assists and two steals in 38 minutes.
Mitchell closed with 21 points, Herro ended the night with 18 points, Pelle Larsson totaled 18 points and Andrew Wiggins finished with 13 points.
“I like how we fought, we stayed in the game,” Herro said. “Much different than the Cleveland game. At Cleveland we kind of let go of the rope. But it was good to see everyone stay in the fight, keep fighting until the end.”
Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro (14) dribbles the ball around Boston Celtics guard Jordan Walsh (27) during the first half of a game on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, at the Kaseya Center in downtown Miami, Fla. Alie Skowronski askowronski@miamiherald.com
The Heat’s recent defensive issues continued, although Spoelstra and players weren’t upset about the effort on Wednesday.
Before this 2-8 stretch, the Heat had the NBA’s fourth-ranked defensive for the season (allowing 111.3 points per 100 possessions).
But the Heat’s defense has been a problem during this rough patch, as it entered Wednesday with the league’s third-worst defensive rating (allowing 123.8 points per 100 possessions) over the first nine games of this 2-8 skid.
Wednesday’s effort didn’t help the Heat’s defensive numbers.
The Heat posted its worst single-game defensive rating of the season, allowing the Celtics to score at a rate of 151.5 points per 100 possessions. It’s actually also Miami’s worst single-game defensive rating in franchise history.
“I mean, this is going to sound crazy, but this is different than the other games that we’re talking about,” Spoelstra said. “Our guys were locked in and competing. There was an exceptional level of shot-making on their part to start the game.”
The Heat fell to 3-20 this season when allowing 120 or more points per 100 possessions.
The Heat has also now allowed more than 120 points in eight of the 10 games during this rough 2-8 stretch.
“This game felt different than the other games, where maybe we just didn’t bring that disposition,” Spoelstra continued. “We brought a disposition. You have to tip your hat to the shot-making that they had in this game.”
The Celtics’ recent dominance over the Heat also continues.
With Wednesday’s win in Miami, the Celtics have now won 17 of their least 20 games against the Heat (including the 2024 first-round playoff series between the two teams that Boston won 4-1).
With Wednesday’s victory, the Celtics also clinched the four-game sweep of their regular-season series against the Heat. It marks the first time that the Celtics have swept a four-game regular-season series against the Heat since the 2016-17 season.
While two of the Heat’s first three losses to the Celtics this season were by five points or less, Wednesday’s defeat was by double digits.
There’s a possibility that the Heat and Celtics could face each other again in a few weeks in the first round of the playoffs. With the Celtics seemingly just days away from clinching the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, the Heat would face the Celtics in the first round of the playoffs if it comes out of the NBA’s play-in tournament with the East’s No. 7 seed.
“They’re second in the East. They are where they were the year before,” Spoelstra said of the Celtics before Wednesday’s game. “So they’re probably looking at us the way they should. They don’t see us as a threat. We need to play better. We understand that. We understand where we are. We understand what has happened.”
Rookie guard Kasparas Jakucionis was out of the Heat’s rotation for the second straight game.
Jakucionis, the Heat’s first-round pick in last year’s draft, has now received two straight DNP-CDs (coach’s decision) after playing in 22 straight games.
Instead, the Heat went with a bench rotation of Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kel’el Ware, Dru Smith and Simone Fontecchio.
Smith again took Jakucionis’ spot in the Heat’s bench rotation, logging four minutes in Wednesday’s loss. Smith received four straight DNP-CDs before this two-game stint of playing ahead of Jakucionis.
Jaquez had the best performance off the Heat’s bench, finishing the defeat with 17 points, 10 rebounds and two assists in 30 minutes.
Ware added eight points and two rebounds in 13 minutes.
The Heat and Celtics were each only without one rotation player on Wednesday. Miami was missing guard Norman Powell for the third straight game due to an illness and Boston was missing center Nikola Vucevic because of a finger injury.
The Heat’s chances of avoiding the NBA’s play-in tournament are now very slim.
According to Basketball Reference’s playoff probabilities report, the Heat entered Wednesday with just a 9 percent chance of evading the play-in tourney.
Wednesday’s loss to the Celtics made the Heat’s chances of avoiding the play-in tournament even worse.
The defeat dropped the Heat from ninth place to 10th place in the East.
The No. 10 Heat (40-37) is now one loss behind the No. 9 Orlando Magic (40-36) and No. 8 Charlotte Hornets (40-36).
The Heat is also three losses behind the No. 7 Toronto Raptors (42-34) and No. 6 Philadelphia 76ers (42-34).
The Heat is four losses behind the No. 5 Atlanta Hawks (44-33).
This is familiar territory for Miami, which has needed to qualify for the playoffs through the play-in tournament in each of the last three seasons.
The Heat needs to finish among the East’s top six teams to clinch a playoff spot and avoid the play-in tournament.
The Heat has just five regular-season games left to play.
“We’re going to take it one game at a time and whatever happens, happens at this point,” Adebayo said.
This story was originally published April 1, 2026 at 10:02 PM.
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Miami Herald
Anthony Chiang covers the Miami Heat for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and was born and raised in Miami.