By Jared Weiss, Eric Koreen, Darnell Mayberry and Will Guillory
Heat doesn’t fully describe what Miami was dropping from behind the arc in Game 2 against the Boston Celtics on Wednesday at TD Garden. The Heat hit 23 3-pointers to secure the win, even the series 1-1 and flip home-court advantage.
Miami’s number of made 3s is a team record for a playoff game and only one shy of tying the mark for any game in team history (Dec. 14, 2022, at OKC).
Tyler Herro, who hit six 3s and had 24 points, also contributed a career-high 14 assists, passing teammate Jimmy Butler — who had 13 in Game 2 of the 2020 NBA Finals — for the most in a road playoff game in Heat history.
Just broke our season-high for three-pointers in a half with 13 🔥
Tyler’s got 4 of ’em pic.twitter.com/LICe9trN9F
— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) April 25, 2024
Later in the night, the Oklahoma City Thunder extended their series lead to 2-0 with a dominant win over the New Orleans Pelicans. Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander proved why he’s an MVP contender, scoring a game-high 33 points, while Chet Holgrem put up 26 points.
New Orleans — which is still without the injured Zion Williamson — struggled to find momentum to compete with OKC’s red-hot offense. All five Thunder starters scored in double-digit figures, with the team shooting 59 percent from the field and 48.3 percent from 3.
OKC became the first-ever NBA team to have all of its points in a playoff game come from players 25 years old or younger, per Opta Stats.
Heat 111, Celtics 101
Series: Tied 1-1
Game 3: Saturday at 6 p.m. ET in Miami
The Heat flip the script
It didn’t look like this series was going to get too competitive after Game 1. Miami wasn’t taking 3s, its defense couldn’t quite handle the Jays and Boston’s firepower was just too much in the end. But the script completely flipped on Wednesday. The Heat effectively turned into the Celtics and vice versa.
This time, it was Miami raining 3s, with Herro having one of his best games of the season running point. Caleb Martin looked like the guy who tore Boston apart in the conference finals last year. So this wasn’t just a run-of-the-mill eight-seed-gets-lucky-shooting kind of win.
This raises real questions about whether Boston can hold a strategic advantage as this series continues. Can Kristaps Porziņģis catch the ball and hit a shot against Miami’s active wings constantly making his life difficult?
GO DEEPER
How Celtics’ defensive adjustment backfired as Heat catch fire on record night
The Celtics’ defensive effort had major holes in it and they are going to need to close out better and find a way to keep up with the Herro-Bam Adebayo pick-and-roll. That action torched the Celtics’ defense from start to finish, so how can Boston adjust? Can Derrick White finally get over those screens? Will Boston have to start switching more and let Adebayo attack the guards?
This was one of those games that reminds you why everyone fears the Heat come playoff time. Coach Erik Spoelstra showed he can make his team turn into whatever it needs to be to get a win in the postseason. The Celtics will need much greater effort deeper into possessions and less offensive predictability to seize control of this series. — Jared Weiss, Celtics staff writer
If you wanna spend some time re-watching all of our threes from tonight, we won’t judge 😌 pic.twitter.com/p4YW2GGHzq
— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) April 25, 2024
The underdog’s gambit
Boston won Game 1 on the strength of a 22-12 advantage in 3-point makes, and Spoelstra’s plan for Game 2 seemed to be designed to flip that script. Spoelstra insisted on the broadcast that his team was just taking the shots that the Celtics defense was surrendering, but taking 15 3-pointers compared to just four 2s in the first quarter was an extreme adherence to embracing the underdog’s gambit.
Four Heat players had three or more 3s, led by Herro’s six. Defensively, Miami played a switch-heavy scheme…
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