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Celtics 105 - HEAT 95 Game Recap

The Miami HEAT fell to the Boston Celtics 105-95 Monday night at AmericanAirlines Arena. Dwyane Wade led the way for the HEAT with 30 points and four assists.

1. Wade Brings It Back

From the jump, Wade was very active against the Celtics. While that didn’t often translate into points in the first half, you could see he was moving around well. Once the second half came along, though, Wade went off. The vet scored 12 of his 30 points in the third, with plenty of those coming in transition.

Perhaps Wade’s best sequence in the quarter came when he broke up an alley-oop attempt from Jared Sullinger to Amir Johnson. After that, he took it patiently down court, assessed the defense, blew by Jae Crowder and slammed it home.

Wade continued his onslaught into the fourth quarter, as he did all he could to try and will the HEAT to victory. In the final period, he had a vintage sequence in which he scored eight straight points to pull Miami within five with 3:24 to go. Wade relentlessly attacked the rim and had some excellent finishes inside against Boston. In all, the 33-year-old shot 12-of-24 for his 30 points and also tallied four boards, four assists and five steals on the night.

2. Chris Bosh Attacks

While Bosh didn’t have the best shooting performance, he fought hard down the stretch on Monday night. In particular, he started the fourth quarter off with a bang, as he scored the HEAT’s first eight points of the period. Throughout the game, Bosh primarily scored by beating his man off the dribble. He did knock down a few shots off the pick-and-pop with Tyler Johnson and Goran Dragic, but they were few and far between. Bosh finished the game with 21 points, 10 boards and five assists.

3. Johnson Provides A Spark

With Miami down early in the second quarter, Johnson came through with some timely jumpers to get the HEAT back in it. In the first half, Johnson connected on all four of his shot attempts, including two 3-pointers. One of those threes came thanks to Justise Winslow.

With 7:52 left in the second, Winslow went up high for the defensive rebound and took it quickly down court. Once David Lee and Isaiah Thomas converged on him, he kicked it out to a wide-open Johnson on the right corner. The second-year player nailed the three to cap off a 12-2 run and give Miami a 40-39 lead.

It was encouraging to see Johnson knock down spot-up jumpers as he has all season. He also played pretty well on the defensive end against the Celtics. In total, Johnson scored 10 points, dished out two assists and had a rebound.

Game Note: Amar’e Stoudemire (illness) and Luol Deng (hamstring) sat out.

The HEAT are back in action Thursday night against the Oklahoma City Thunder at AmericanAirlines Arena.