Turn it up: Heat rally, take 2-0 lead over Celts
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Goran Dragic scored 25 points, Bam Adebayo led a big third-quarter rally to finish with 21, and the Heat pulled off another comeback to beat the Celtics 106-101 and take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals Thursday night.
Duncan Robinson scored 18 points, Jimmy Butler had 14, Jae Crowder 12 and Tyler Herro 11. The Heat were down by 17 in the second quarter and trailed by 13 at halftime.
They had been 0-21 in playoff games when trailing by at least that many at intermission. They’re 1-21 now, and two wins away from their first NBA Finals since 2014.
“We like to make it hard on ourselves,” Butler said. “We like being down double-digits and being the comeback kids.”
Kemba Walker had 23 points for the Celtics, who got 21 apiece from Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. Brown missed a corner 3 that would have tied it with 15 seconds left, and Butler sealed it with two free throws with 7.4 seconds remaining.
Game 3 is Saturday.
Dragic — playing on the third anniversary of his fondest basketball moment, leading Slovenia to the European Championship — scored nine points in the fourth quarter.
The Heat took a 2-0 series lead for the 11th time in coach Erik Spoelstra’s tenure. They’ve won all previous 10 instances.
The Heat got in big trouble in the series opener by scoring 18 points in the first quarter and 16 points in the third. In Game 2, another 18-point quarter — the second — sent the Celtics into the half up 60-47.
The Heat outscored the Celtics 37-17 in the third quarter, with Adebayo — the defensive hero of Game 1 — outshooting and nearly outscoring the Celtics by himself. The Celtics went 4-for-12 from the floor in the quarter, Adebayo went 7-for-8 on his way to a 15-point period and the Heat led 84-77 when it was over.
With that, it was the Celtics’ turn to rally. They went on a 15-2 run in the fourth, silencing the Heat for nearly seven minutes and going up 94-89 on a 3-pointer by Walker with 4:25 left.
That only set the stage for another rally: The Heat finished the game on a 17-7 run.
“Team effort,” Butler said.
The Heat’s 20-point differential in the third quarter was a franchise record for that quarter in the playoffs, and the sixth time in team playoff history they outscored an opponent by at least 20 in any quarter.
Robinson, who had been 2-for-9 on 3s in his last two games, made four in the first quarter.