The Heat overcame a 14-point deficit to defeat the Boston Celtics 98-95 on Tuesday night behind the performance of Bam Adebayo, who finished with 30 points, including the jump shot and 15 rebounds that gave Miami the lead for good with 20.4 seconds left.
For the Heat, Victor Oladipo scored 12 points; Max Strus scored 13 points; Haywood Highsmith had 15 points and ten rebounds.
The Heat, who drew the regular-season series with the Celtics 2-2, were helped by a 15-0 rally in the fourth quarter.
Jayson Tatum ended with 31 points, 14 rebounds, and seven assists for the Celtics. Robert Williams III added 11 points, and Derrick White finished with 23.
With just over a second left, Tyler Herro intercepted a cross-court pass from Jayson Tatum, preventing Boston from tying or taking the lead.
Miami led by three after Highsmith’s free throw with 0.6 seconds remaining. Payton Pritchard’s immediate 30-footer missed as time ran out after Boston called time.
Williams scored an alley-oop slam with 8:47 remaining as Boston led 87-77. The Heat scored the following 15 points while the Celtics missed their next ten attempts, but Tatum’s three-point play with 2:19 remaining ended both of those runs and brought Boston within 92-90.
In addition to Malcolm Brogdon, who was absent due to personal reasons, Boston was without three potential starters in Al Horford (lower back stiffness), Jaylen Brown (right adductor), and Marcus Smart (right ankle).
Jimmy Butler missed the game for Miami because of a strained lower back.
By halftime, Tatum had scored 21, and the Celtics finished the half on an 11-0 run to grab a 58-50 lead. With 6:57 left in the second, Gabe Vincent’s 3-pointer gave Miami a 44-39 lead. However, the Heat missed 14 of their next 16 shots to conclude the half, with their only two baskets coming on layups.
In the second half, Boston’s lead would increase to 13, but Miami fought back.
Celtics: Tatum is third in the NBA in first-half scoring this year with an average of 15.3 points, only behind Joel Embiid and Luka Doncic. Boston lost on the second night of back-to-backs this season, dropping to 7-1. As of Tuesday, the only NBA team without a loss in those circumstances was the Celtics.
Heat: Butler had a season-long streak of 11 straight games played. Miami (27-22) is five games above.500, a season-high. For the Heat, Kyle Lowry had eight assists and five rebounds. Miami only committed eight turnovers, and Boston scored six points. The Heat scored 17 points due to the Celtics’ 17 errors.