MIAMI \u2014\u00a0For the first 1:59 of Wednesday night’s game, neither the Boston Celtics nor the Heat missed a shot. They made seven straight baskets. Jaylen Brown went ballistic for Boston, and Bam Adebayo took on that role for Miami.<\/p>\n
By the 4:44 mark, the Heat held a one-point lead, but both sides had already put up monster scoring numbers. A pair of Kel’el Ware free throws made the score 30-29.<\/p>\n
From that point on, it was all Boston.<\/p>\n
In those final few minutes of the first quarter, the Celtics outscored the Heat 24-3. Boston’s 53 first-quarter points were the most scored in a single quarter since 1970.<\/p>\n
Brown finished the quarter with 20 points, two rebounds, and one assist on 8-of-11 shooting from the field and 2-of-2 shooting from deep. Yet somehow, he wasn’t the clear-cut offensive leader for Boston.<\/p>\n
Sam Hauser threw his hat in the ring for that title in the first quarter. He scored 17 points and didn’t miss a shot. Hauser shot a perfect 6-of-6 from the floor and 5-of-5 from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n
As the second quarter got underway, the Heat kept things close, avoiding an onslaught like the one that occurred in the first.<\/p>\n
Jayson Tatum heated up in the second, scoring 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting, but Miami also found chances to get out and run in transition. A few empty possessions and live-ball turnovers gave Miami some life. They scored 11 fast-break points on 4-of-5 shooting.<\/p>\n
Still, Miami was unable to find a consistent offensive rhythm (at least, after its red-hot start). Boston maintained its lead, pouring in a whopping 80 first-half points to Miami’s 57.<\/p>\n
And despite Brown, Hauser, and Tatum’s offensive showings, the best sequence of the first half came from Derrick White.<\/p>\n
As the game clock was ticking down in the second quarter, White threw a lob to Brown in transition. Miami quickly grabbed the ball out of the basket and threw it to Pelle Larsson, who was already dashing down the court.<\/p>\n
White sprinted from one end of the court to the other to contest Larsson’s shot, preventing an easy layup. It was the ultimate hustle play.<\/p>\n
As the third quarter got underway, the Heat found a small window for a comeback. They began the quarter shooting 5-of-6 from three-point land, cutting into Boston’s monstrous lead.<\/p>\n
But even then, by the 4:55 mark, the Celtics had regained control. And Brown didn’t slow down at all.<\/p>\n
Jaime Jaquez Jr. did his best to keep Miami afloat in the final few minutes of the third. And he got some support from Ware and Davion Mitchell, too.<\/p>\n
The long ball gave Miami life. The Heat finished the third quarter with 45 points, including 25 in the final 4:19. They entered the fourth within striking distance and with the entire Kaseya Center behind them.<\/p>\n
Tyler Herro nailed a transition three at the 10:41 mark in the fourth to bring Miami within nine points, but the Celtics immediately<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014\u00a0For the first 1:59 of Wednesday night’s game, neither the Boston Celtics nor the Heat missed a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9806,5817,123,125,124,98381,98382],"class_list":["post-215776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-boston-celtics","tag-celtics","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-top-celtics","tag-top-story-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}