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Key Moment
A cold stretch of offense burned the Celtics Wednesday night at TD Garden.
Boston went scoreless from the 4:20 mark of the fourth quarter until the 1:41 mark, all while the Miami Heat scored five straight points to build a 102-96 lead. Miami maintained a lead of at least two possessions the rest of the way en route to a 106-98 victory.
The Celtics couldn’t muster anything up on offense during that stretch of play. They missed open jumpers, they missed open layups, they missed challenged layups (some of which were borderline fouls), and they turned the ball over. All told, Boston managed to score just two points over the final 4:20 of the contest while Miami pulled away for the win.
Key Player
Jaylen Brown has become an unstoppable force when he takes the ball to the basket with force. Wednesday night was just another example of that fact.
Brown scored a game-high 28 points for Boston by putting pressure on the defense, which also opened up his long-range shot. He was on fire for the first 44 minutes of the night, before both he and the rest of Boston’s roster went ice cold down the stretch.
Prior to those final four minutes, Brown had dropped in four of his eight shots from inside the arc and five of his seven 3-pointers. Overall, he wound up shooting 9-for-22 from the field, 5-for-9 from long range, and 5-of-6 from the free-throw line.
Brown also notched his second straight double-double, and his 10th overall of the season, by hauling in 10 rebounds. Those 10 boards trailed only Al Horford’s 15 on the team. He rounded out his box score by logging six assists on the night.
Box Score Nuggets
- Each team had two players score at least 23 points - Jaylen Brown (28) and Jayson Tatum (23) for the Celtics, and Jimmy Butler (24) and Kyle Lowry (23) for Miami.
- Al Horford grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds to tie his season high in that department.
- Boston assisted on 27 of its 35 made field goals.
- Both teams made 17 free throws.
- Miami made two more 3s than Boston (13 to 11) despite attempting three fewer (34 to 37).
- Daniel Theis led all reserves in scoring with 15 points.
- Boston shot just 41.2 percent from the field.
- Marcus Smart, Lowry and Bam Adebayo tied fo the game high in assists with eight apiece.
- Both teams grabbed nine steals.
- Miami blocked six shots, while Boston blocked just one.
Quote of the Night
Ime Udoka on how closely the C's are paying attention to the standings