Jayson Tatum scored the first playoff hat-trick of his career with 23 points, ten rebounds and ten assists to lead the Boston Celtics to a 114-94 victory over the Miami Heat on Sunday to begin this first-round series.
Derrick White added 20 points and four assists for Boston, with six players hitting double figures.
Miami spoiled the Celtics’ dreams of reaching the NBA Finals last season, blowing a 3-0 lead in the conference finals before winning the seven-game series. Miami then lost to Denver in the final.
Boston fed off the energy of the TD Garden crowd with 22 three-pointers and outscoring the Heat 31-14 in the third quarter. The Celtics’ lead grew to 34 points in the fourth quarter. Miami took advantage of a late surge to get within 14, but Boston was able to close out the game.
Including the regular season, Boston is 38-4 at home and has won its last four meetings against the Heat.
Bam Adebayo scored 24 points for Miami, which played the second straight game without Jimmy Butler following his right knee injury. Terry Rozier was also out with a neck injury. Delon Wright added 17 points. Jaime Jaquez Jr. finished with 16 points.
The second game will take place on Wednesday in Boston.
Tempers flared in the final minute when Caleb Martin hit Tatum on an attempt to grab a rebound and sent him crashing hard to the floor. Brown then hit Martin in the face which led to a brief melee and double technical faults to Brown and Martin.
2024-04-21 19:57:00
#Summary #games #East #NBA #Sunday #April
