The scoreboard broke during crucial minutes of the fourth quarter on Tuesday night at AmericanAirlines Arena. It was pretty much the only thing rusty about the Heat’s first home game in six months.

The Heat and Celtics treated fans to a brilliant display of early season basketball despite both sides being only two games into a schedule delayed and truncated by the lockout. In a rehash of the playoff meeting between the rivals, the Heat was pushed but never seriously threatened, defeating Boston 115-107.

The sellout crowd, juiced for the return of basketball, made it feel like a playoff game. The Heat dominated for long stretches in the first half and third quarter, but the Celtics cut the deficit to three points with less than two minutes remaining. With that, all the old, familiar feelings came rushing back into the arena: tension, excitement, suspense.

But then, a new face stole the show.

Heat rookie point guard Norris Cole scored nine consecutive points in the final three minutes of the game to stave off the Celtics. The reserve from Cleveland State sparked his own rally with 3:15 left when he absorbed a charge from Brandon Bass, who outweighes the young firecracker by 75 pounds.

Cole lay on his back and pounded his fists in excitement. An obscure name from the Horizon League on draft day, Cole made a name for himself in his first home game.

Fans chanted “MVP!” as Cole went to the free-throw line with 9.3 seconds left and the game already won. He swished both attempts to cement his storybook home debut. Cole scored 20 points, shooting 8 of 16 from the field, to go along with four rebounds and four assists.

“I guess that’s some hard work paying off,” Cole said. “It was one of those nights where LeBron [James] and Dwyane [Wade] kept finding me and just kept knocking it down.”

Now go back and read that quote one more time to let the words sink in.

Moments after the game, James gave Cole a huge bear huge and told him, “Good game.”

“They’re like my big brothers,” Cole said. “They keep me confident, and they’re always telling me they believe in me.”

James led the Heat with 26 points on 9-of-14 shooting. Wade scored 24 points on 8 of 15 from the field. Bosh had 18 points, going 8 of 11. In all, the Heat shot a blistering 56 percent from the field.

James and Wade tore through the Celtics early, but it was the rookie who was handed the reins with the game on the line.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said it wasn’t a surprise.

“[Cole has] earned their respect — even though it’s been only a short period of time — because he’s all about the team,” Spoelstra said. “We just want to encourage him … and keep his mind free.”

Ray Allen, threatening to do to the Heat what he’s done so many times before in the regular season, led the Celtics with 28 points while shooting 6 of 8 from three-point range. Rajon Rondo had 22 points and 12 assists. Keyon Dooling of Fort Lauderdale Dillard High filled the role of injured starter Paul Pierce and scored 18 points off the bench.

The Celtics cut the Heat’s lead to 10 points early in the second half, but Wade and James countered with a flurry of offense. James banked in a jumper from 15 feet with 7:02 left to put the Heat ahead by 16.

Then, it happened again. Just like the season opener in Dallas, a Mario Chalmers-to-Wade-to-James alley-oop that happened so suddenly in transition that if you looked down to eat a bit of popcorn you missed the best play of the game.

Chalmers stripped Kevin Garnett under the Celtics’ basket and quickly pushed it ahead to Wade, who was already rushing down the court. James was ahead of Wade, running a 4.3 40-yard dash, and soared through the air with all his freakish size and ability. Wade lobbed a perfectly weighted pass to James, who finished the play with a powerful dunk.

It was the new-look Heat in all its glory.

In its first two games, the Heat has attacked the basket with a fury that borders on vengeance. James’ sprints up the court have become a staple of the Heat’s offense. He’s unstoppable in transition, and he’s letting everyone know it.

For a long while, the Heat flirted with its franchise record for field-goal percentage in a game. Midway through the third quarter, the team was shooting a staggering 69.6 percent from the floor. But the Heat cooled off, the Celtics’ defense stiffened, and Boston cut Miami’s lead to eight points to begin the fourth quarter.