Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro (14) celebrates with Caleb Martin late in the second half of Game 2 of the NBA first-round playoff series against the Boston Celtics, Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
BOSTON — The Miami Heat beat Boston with an unprecedented series of 3-pointers on Wednesday night to erase the NBA home-field advantage the Celtics worked all season to establish.
Tyler Herro had 24 points and 14 assists, making six of Miami's 23 3-pointers – the most in a playoff game in franchise history – to lead the Heat to a 111-101 victory over top-seeded Boston , and draw the first round playoff. series in one game each.
“It was a really good response,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “And then we also took some photos. It always looks better when you take photos.”
READ: NBA: Jayson Tatum leads Celtics over Heat in series opener
Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo led as the @Miami Heat Take the W road and tie the knot!
Hero: 24 PTS, 6:30 p.m., 14 AST
Bam: 21 PTS (9-13 FGM), 10 REB pic.twitter.com/QsWuGJvrDf-NBA (@NBA) April 25, 2024
Bam Adebayo had 21 points and 10 rebounds, and the Celtics' new nemesis Caleb Martin also had 21 points for the Heat, who shot 53.5% (23 of 43) from beyond the arc to bounce back after a game loss. 1. This broke Miami's playoff record of 20 3-pointers, set against the Bucks in the 2021 first round.
“They obviously made a conscious effort to have the freedom to shoot more,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said.
And shoot and shoot and shoot.
Playing its third consecutive game without playoff stalwart Jimmy Butler, who was injured in the opening game, Miami shot over 50% from 3-point range in each of the first three quarters (and still a productive 4-of-10 in the fourth).
After Boston cut an 11-point lead to six, 102-96, with 3:16 left, Martin hit a 3 and Boston never got that close to two possessions again.
“You have to get them, based on how they played against us the first two games,” said Spoelstra, who saw Boston hit 22 3-pointers to Miami’s 12 in the opener. “I didn’t want to get annihilated in that department like we did in the game before.”
READ: Celtics' Jayson Tatum OK after collision late in win over Heat
Jaylen Brown scored 33 points for Boston. Jayson Tatum scored 28, showing no ill effects from Martin's hard foul that sent him to the floor with less than a minute to play in Boston's 114-94 victory on Sunday.
Tatum got up from the parquet floor.
But Miami too.
“It didn’t seem like we could make them miss,” Brown said. “They had a record night. … They made a lot of shots that we normally feel comfortable with.”
The series heads to Miami for Games 3 and 4 on Saturday and Monday.
“It’s always good if you can get one on the road,” Martin said. “You always try to steal one. We were able to do that.”
The Celtics won 64 regular-season games to claim home-field advantage in the NBA Finals, but they didn't make good use of it on Wednesday despite a crowd that was still excited to see their star star land with a bang in the series. opener.
Tatum had his first career playoff triple-double on Sunday, scoring 23 points with 10 rebounds and 10 assists in a game in which Boston led by as many as 34 points in the fourth quarter. But the big question was how he would recover after being picked off by Martin while chasing a rebound.
Tatum started Game 2 and had 14 points in the first quarter. And Martin was booed every time he touched the ball.
That only seemed to energize him and the Heat, who needed to win a play-in game to earn the right to face the Celtics.
“He is a competitor. He’s the ultimate X-factor,” Spoelstra said. “He is the X factor of X factors.”
Miami led by five, 55-50, with two minutes left in the first half before Brown hit three consecutive 3-pointers to open a four-point lead. Brown missed a 3 the next time, but his layup in the final seconds made it 61-58 at halftime.
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Miami went on a 10-0 run to take an 82-70 lead with less than four minutes left in the third before the Celtics cut it to six.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Tatum said. “There is a lot of history between these two franchises, especially recently. … It’s never going to be exactly what people expect and that’s the beauty of it.”
