Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo (13) is congratulated by guard Tyler Herro (14) after making a basket during the second half against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden. Bob DeChiara Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s impressive 124-103 victory over the Boston Celtics (56-20) on Wednesday night at TD Garden to win its sixth straight game and close its three-game trip at a perfect 3-0. The Heat (35-41) now returns to Miami to begin a three-game homestand on Thursday against the Memphis Grizzlies (7:30 p.m., TNT):
After enduring one of its worst stretches in more than a decade, the Heat continued its best stretch of this season with a quality road win over the Celtics.
The Heat has now immediately followed its 10-game losing skid (its longest since 2008) with a season-long six-game winning streak. All six victories have come by double-digits.
The Heat is just the third team in NBA history to immediately follow a losing streak of at least 10 games with a winning streak of at least six games. The other two teams that did it are the 2021-22 Houston Rockets (didn’t make the playoffs and finished with a 20-62 record) and the 2017-18 Chicago Bulls (didn’t make the playoffs and finished with a 27-55 record).
The Heat is the first team in NBA history to immediately follow a losing skid of at least 10 games with six straight double-digit wins.
“We’re just trying to take care of our business and continue to try to play well, compete hard, have this connectivity that’s growing as this season is going on and prepare,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “… Our locker room is alive. It’s been alive even when we were losing games just for this opportunity to compete, have these games matter and grow together through all of this stuff.”
With four of the first five wins during this stretch coming against teams with losing records, the Heat proved to be up for a tougher challenge against the defending NBA champion Celtics. Along with extending its own winning streak, Miami also snapped Boston’s string of nine straight wins.
The Heat did it in convincing fashion, too, taking a 20-17 lead with 3:45 left in the first quarter and never trailing again the rest of the night.
The Heat led by as many as 15 points in the first half and entered halftime with a 14-point advantage behind a spirited defensive effort. Boston shot just 37.2 percent from the field and 3 of 18 (16.7 percent) on threes over the first two quarters.
The Heat then opened the third quarter on a 10-2 run to pull ahead by 22 points less than two minutes into the period.
But as expected, the Celtics responded with a big 25-6 run to cut the deficit to three points with 4:28 left in the third quarter.
The Heat was able to stabilize things, though, closing the period on a 14-7 run to enter the fourth quarter with a 10-point advantage.
After the Celtics scored the first six points of the fourth quarter to pull within four points, the Heat put the game away with a 20-9 spurt to increase its lead to 15 with 5:04 to play and force a Celtics timeout.
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla then opted to pull the plug, returning from that timeout by subbing out Boston’s best players and emptying the bench.
The Heat used a balanced offensive attack to dismantle the Celtics’ defense, with seven Miami players scoring double-digit points.
Tyler Herro led the way for the Heat with a game-high 25 points on 7-of-18 shooting from the field, 2-of-6 shooting on threes and 9-of-10 shooting from the foul line, six rebounds, nine assists and two steals.
Bam Adebayo added 21 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field, 2-of-3 shooting on threes and 1-of-1 shooting from the foul line, five rebounds and six assists.
The Celtics entered averaging a league-high 17.9 three-point makes per game on a league-high 48.5 three-point attempts per game this season. But Boston shot just 12 of 43 (27.9 percent) from behind the arc on Wednesday.
The Heat actually outscored the Celtics 42-36 from three-point range.
Jaylen Brown scored a team-high 24 points for the Celtics. But Jayson Tatum was limited to just 16 points on 4-of-17 shooting from the field and 2-of-9 shooting on threes.
Yes, the Celtics were missing Jrue Holiday (right shoulder impingement), Al Horford (left big toe sprain) and Kristaps Porzingis (return from illness reconditioning) against the Heat.
But the Heat was also short-handed, missing Nikola Jovic (broken right hand), Kevin Love (personal reasons), Duncan Robinson (left sacroiliac joint dysfunction), Dru Smith (Achilles surgery) and Andrew Wiggins (right hamstring tendinopathy) on Wednesday.
The win snapped the Heat’s six-game regular-season losing streak to the Celtics. It also marked the Heat’s first regular-season win in Boston since Dec. 2, 2022.
“Obviously, they were short-handed with Jrue and Al and Porzingis out,” Heat forward Kyle Anderson said. “But there’s not a team where we’re like, ’We’re scared of them, we don’t want to play them.’ I think we can compete with anybody. We’ve shown that. And the most important time of the year is coming up in two weeks, so we’ll see.”
The Heat has blown a lot of big leads this season, but it showed growth by holding on to defeat the Celtics.
Even after the Celtics cut a 22-point deficit to just three with a big third-quarter run, the Heat stood strong by closing the period on a 14-7 run to enter the fourth quarter with a 10-point lead.
The Celtics kept fighting, trimming the deficit to four points with 9:59 left in the fourth quarter. But the Heat again pushed back with a 28-13 run to extend its lead to 19 with 2:37 to play and seal the win.
“They made their run, we stayed together, we didn’t fold, we didn’t let go of the rope and we stayed in the fight,” Herro said.
This was an encouraging finish for the Heat, which has blown a double-digit lead in an NBA-high 20 losses this season. The Heat has also blown 18 fourth-quarter leads in losses this season, which is tied for the most such collapses in the league.
“These fourth quarters, we’ve had to figure that out,” Spoelstra said. “But this group really works at it. I really admire that locker room.”
The Heat’s new-look bench rotation continues to produce quality results
With Davion Mitchell back after missing Monday’s win over the Washington Wizards due to a stomach illness, the Heat returned to its short three-man bench rotation of Haywood Highsmith, Anderson and Mitchell.
Those three players have been fixtures in the Heat’s bench rotation over the last week and they’ve played well.
That trend continued in Boston, as Anderson, Highsmith and Mitchell combined for 42 points off the Heat’s bench.
Anderson totaled a season-high 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field, 1-of-2 shooting on threes and 4-of-4 shooting from the foul line in 24 minutes.
“I just can’t say enough about Kyle,” Spoelstra said. “Kyle is a winning basketball player. He really is.”
Highsmith recorded 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the field and 2-of-6 shooting on threes, four rebounds and one block in 26 minutes.
Mitchell contributed 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the field and 3-of-6 shooting on threes, four rebounds, seven assists and three steals in 33 minutes.
“Davion is really embracing his role of being a pit bull, an energy changer off the bench,” Spoelstra said.
Mitchell finished Wednesday’s win with a team-best plus/minus of plus 21. Anderson was a plus 17 and Highsmith was a plus 13.
Rookie Pelle Larsson also stepped up for the Heat in his third straight start. Larsson finished the victory with 16 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the field, 2-of-3 shooting on threes and 6-of-7 shooting from the foul line, four rebounds, four assists and one steal in 30 minutes.
“Pelle continues to gain confidence,” Spoelstra said. “He’s been putting in all the work. You can see where his skill set has gotten better. But it still comes down to his intangibles. He just does a lot of winning things.”
While the Heat is a near lock to be part of the NBA’s play-in tournament for the third straight season, it’s playing to improve its position in the play-in tournament. And Wednesday proved to be a productive day for Miami.
Along with the Heat’s win in Boston, the Atlanta Hawks lost. Also, the Bulls and Orlando Magic were idle on Wednesday.
The Heat remains in ninth place in the Eastern Conference standings, but pulled within one game of the eighth-place Hawks and 1.5 games of the seventh-place Magic.
The East’s play-in game between the No. 7 team and No. 8 team will be played on Tuesday, April 15 at a time still to be determined and aired on TNT. The winner of this matchup, which will be hosted by the seventh-place team, earns the conference’s seventh playoff seed.
The East’s play-in game between the No. 9 team and No. 10 team will be played on Wednesday, April 16 at a time still to be determined and aired on ESPN. The Heat — as the ninth-place team — would host the Bulls in this game if the current standings hold, with the loser of this matchup eliminated from playoff contention.
Then the East’s play-in game between the loser of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 game and the winner of the No. 9 vs. No. 10 game will be played on Friday, April 18 and aired on TNT. The winner of this matchup, which will be hosted by the loser of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 game, earns the conference’s eighth playoff seed.
So, if the Heat finishes the regular season in ninth or 10th place, it would need to win two straight games in the play-in tournament just to qualify for the playoffs as the East’s No. 8 seed. Closing the regular season in seventh or eighth place means the Heat would get two chances to win one play-in game to make the playoffs as either the East’s No. 7 or No. 8 seed.
The Heat has just six games left to play this regular season.
The Heat is right back at it on Thursday to close this challenging late-season back-to-back set.
After defeating the team with the East’s second-best record on Wednesday night, the Heat will take a three-hour flight from Boston that is scheduled to land in Miami just after 2 a.m. on Thursday morning.
The Heat will then be back on the court to host a desperate and talented Grizzlies team just 18 hours later on Thursday night.
The Grizzlies, which have dropped eight of their last 10 games, will have the rest advantage after last playing on Tuesday in a loss to the Golden State Warriors. Memphis has plenty to play for, entering Wednesday in sixth place in the Western Conference with a 44-32 record and in a battle to avoid the NBA’s play-in tournament.
The only players on the Grizzlies’ injury report for Thursday’s game in Miami are Brandon Clarke (right knee PCL sprain), Zyon Pullin (right patellar tendon surgery recovery) and Vince Williams Jr., who have all been ruled out for the contest.
It remains to be seen if the Heat will get Wiggins, Robinson and/or Love back for Thursday’s game.
Considering the Heat is just 10-26 this season in games against teams that currently have a winning record and will be playing on the second night of a rough back-to-back, Thursday’s matchup against the Grizzlies will be a tough one.
“That doesn’t matter,” Spoelstra said of the challenging circumstances. “We all have back to backs. We’re not afraid of those.”
The Heat is 7-7 on the second night of back-to-backs this season. This Celtics-Grizzlies set marks the Heat’s 15th and final back-to-back set of the season.
This story was originally published April 2, 2025 at 9:59 PM.
