Still one away: Heat blows 12-point lead to Celtics with chance to clinch Finals berth
The Miami Heat spent an entire half Friday on the brink of celebration.
The Heat led the Boston Celtics by 12 points in the second quarter and never trailed in the first half of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals. Miami, just one win away from the 2020 NBA Finals, was just two quarters away from completing its stunning run to the NBA’s championship series.
In the third quarter, it all unraveled. A seven-point halftime lead swung into a 14-point deficit for the Heat and the Celtics, who blew double-digit leads in the first two games of the NBA Conference Finals, rallied to stave off elimination with a 121-108 win in Lake Buena Vista. Miami, which still leads the series 3-2, will have to wait until at least Sunday at Walt Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex to clinch a spot its first NBA Finals since 2014.
Boston ripped off a 13-0 run early in the third quarter to charge ahead and everything the Heat did well in the first half collapsed. Miami started 0 for 5 from three-point range in the third quarter and sharpshooting swingman Duncan Robinson, who scored 17 in the first half, missed all three of his three-pointers in the period.
The Heat opened 1 of 9 from the field overall and the Celtics finally took the lead with 7:51 left in the third. As the quarter dragged on, All-Star forwards Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo both picked up their fourth fouls, and Jayson Tatum, the Celtics’ All-Star forward, scored 17 points by going 7 for 8 at the free-throw line. The Celtics scored 41 in the quarter.
With Butler sidelined by foul trouble after a 14-point first half, Goran Dragic tried, almost singlehandedly, to will Miami back. The guard scored 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting in the third and those points came in the last seven minutes of the third after Boston took the lead.
He hit a floater with 52.2 seconds left in the quarter, then rookie wing Tyler Herro hit his first three of the game to trim the deficit to 92-83 by the start of the fourth quarter.
Herro hit another shot to start the fourth and cut Boston’s lead down to 92-85, but wing Andre Iguodala then committed a technical foul, leading to a three-point possession and letting Boston push the lead back to double digits. The Heat never again got the lead down to seven points.
Butler finished with just 17 points after scoring 14 in the first half and Robinson finished with 20 after going off for 17 in the first two quarters.
Dragic, who finished with 23 points before fouling out with 4:27 left, was one of only two Miami players to score in double figures in the second half, and Adebayo finished with just 13 points and eight rebounds as he played through a minor left arm injury. The Heat, which had the second best three-point percentage in the NBA in the regular season, went just 7 of 36 from long range and finished at 45.2 percent overall from the field.
This story was originally published September 25, 2020 at 11:21 PM.
