Heat keeps it close, but falls to Celtics to open trip. Takeaways from first loss of season
The Miami Heat’s last trip to Boston produced memories that will last a lifetime. But Friday’s TD Garden experience was not as memorable.
Five months after winning Game 7 of the 2023 Eastern Conference finals in Boston to advance to the NBA Finals, the Heat (1-1) fell to the new-look Boston Celtics 119-111 at TD Garden on Friday night in the teams’ second game of the season.
“I liked our fight,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said. “Obviously there’s no moral victories in this. But Game 2, I think there’s a lot to take away from tonight.”
The Heat started strong, pulling ahead by 13 points with 5:02 left in the first quarter.
But the Celtics (2-0) controlled the rest of the first half, closing the first quarter on a 12-2 run to cut the deficit to three and then won the second quarter 35-27 to take a five-point lead into halftime.
The Heat didn’t go away, though, winning the third quarter 33-27 to enter the fourth quarter with a one-point lead.
Then, as many of the Heat’s games do, it came down to the final minutes.
The Celtics were simply the better team going down the stretch, using a well-timed 21-11 run to turn a two-point deficit with 11:07 left in the fourth quarter into an eight-point lead over the Heat with 4:19 to play.
Derrick White led the late-game push for Boston, scoring 14 points in the fourth quarter while also coming away with a beautiful chase-down block on a Jimmy Butler dunk attempt in transition. White finished the game with 28 points, six rebounds, two assists and three blocks.
Even after trailing by eight points with 2:18 to play, the Heat kept fighting and pulled within three points with 59.1 seconds left on the clock.
The Heat then nearly forced a back-court violation, but Butler was called for a foul on White. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra’s challenge of the call was unsuccessful and White made both free throws to extend the Celtics’ lead to five with 47.4 seconds remaining.
The Heat never recovered, as Jaylen Brown then hit a three-point dagger to put Miami away and give Boston an eight-point advantage with 17.5 seconds to play.
Butler was quiet for the Heat, closing with 14 points on 3-of-11 shooting from the field, six rebounds and three assists in 34 minutes.
But the duo of Bam Adebayo and Herro helped to keep the Heat in the game, combining for 55 points.
Adebayo finished with 27 points on 10-of-24 shooting from the field, seven rebounds, two assists, one steal and two blocks.
Herro finished with 28 points on 10-of-19 shooting from the field and 5-of-12 shooting from three-point range, six rebounds and six assists.
The Celtics’ new additions, Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, turned in solid performances. Holiday recorded 17 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists, and Porzingis contributed 17 points, nine rebounds, one assists, three steals and one block.
The Celtics’ leading duo of Brown (27 points) and Tatum (22 points) combined for 49 points.
The Heat lost despite shooting 16 of 33 (48.5 percent) from three-point range. It marked the first time since Feb. 28, 2019 that the Heat has dropped a game when shooting 48.5 percent or better on threes.
The Celtics’ 23 second-chance points off 16 offensive rebounds didn’t help matters for Miami.
The Heat played the game without three rotation players in Haywood Highsmith, Caleb Martin and Josh Richardson because of injuries. The Celtics entered at full health.
“Both those guys were competing on both ends,” Spoelstra said of Adebayo and Herro. “And that’s all we want. We’re going to follow Jimmy, Bam, Tyler. And everybody else has been put together on this roster to really complement them. And everybody brings great strengths that complement those guys. It wasn’t enough, so that’s what we’re talking about. All this has to lead to wins. But I love the competitive spirit.”
The Heat continues its three-game trip on Saturday against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center (8 p.m., Bally Sports Sun) on the second night of a back-to-back.
Five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the Celtics on Friday:
There was a questionable foul call in the final minute that the Heat did not agree with.
The near back-court violation that instead ended as a foul call on Butler with 47.4 seconds to play was a topic of conversation following the game.
A Kevin Love three-pointer had just pulled the Heat within three points seconds before and it appeared the Heat may have forced a Celtics turnover to take back possession with a chance to tie the score.
As Butler pressured White near the three-point line, Butler appeared to make contact with White’s arm but a foul was not then called. Instead, the foul was called after White dribbled the ball over the half-court line for what looked to be a back-court violation.
Spoelstra challenged the call, but it was ruled unsuccessful. An angry Spoelstra kept pleading his case to the officials as White made both free throws to push the Celtics’ lead to five on the way to ending the Heat’s hopes at completing the comeback win.
“My view is one thing, their explanation is another thing,” Spoelstra said of the sequence of events. “That’s where we are right now. We’ll agree to disagree. I was challenging a foul that was made at half court, not that was made in front of me. Whether that was a foul or not, I don’t know. But they called a foul at half court that was clearly not a foul. And that’s not the same play.”
When asked for the explanation he received from officials on the foul he committed, Butler said: “I don’t know. I don’t ask questions. I just roll with the punches.”
The Last Two Minute report that will be issued Saturday for the Heat-Celtics game will offer more clarity on the foul call.
With Martin a late scratch, the Heat was without three of its top perimeter defenders against the Celtics.
The Heat entered Friday knowing that it would be without Highsmith (left knee sprain) and Richardson (right foot discomfort) against the Celtics. Highsmith and Richardson, who both also missed the season opener, did not travel to Boston for the start of the three-game trip.
But about an hour before tipoff, Martin was downgraded from probable to questionable for Friday’s game because of lingering left knee tendinosis. Then about 30 minutes before the game, Martin was ruled out.
This comes after Martin played in Wednesday’s season-opening win over the Detroit Pistons, but hardly looked like himself with two points on 1-of-7 shooting from the field in 20 minutes off the bench. Martin, 28, also missed the Heat’s first four preseason games because of left knee tendinosis before playing in the preseason finale and the regular-season opener.
“We think it’s managing right now,” Spoelstra said when asked if Martin suffered a setback. “And he’s got a will [to play]. But we want to make sure that it’s not nagging. And that’s where he is right now.”
Martin started feeling discomfort in his left knee in the weeks leading up to training camp.
The Heat continues to show trust in guard Dru Smith.
With Highsmith, Martin and Richardson out, the Heat played a few of its developmental players to complete its 10-man rotation against the Celtics.
The Heat again went with a starting lineup of Kyle Lowry, Herro, Butler, Love and Adebayo.
The Heat’s bench rotation on Friday included Duncan Robinson, Dru Smith, Thomas Bryant, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Jamal Cain. The only change from the opener is that Cain played instead of the unavailable Martin to round out Miami’s 10-man rotation.
It’s notable that Smith, who was promoted from a two-way contract to a standard deal last week, has played in each of the Heat’s first two games.
Smith, 25, finished the season opener with two points and one assist in nine minutes off the Heat’s bench. He closed Friday’s loss with nine points, two rebounds, three assists and three steals in 23 minutes.
Smith, who went undrafted in 2021 out of Missouri, has opened the season as part of the Heat’s rotation mostly because of the team’s injury issues on the perimeter.
Before this season, Smith had played in only 15 regular-season NBA games during his career. They all came last season.
As for Cain, he finished scoreless but grabbed one rebound in four minutes on Friday in his first action of this regular season.
Cain is on a two-way contract, which only allows him to be on the Heat’s active list for as many as 50 regular-season games with other game action having to come in the G League. Cain has been active for each of the Heat’s first two games.
The list of available Heat players who were active but did not play on Friday included RJ Hampton, Nikola Jovic and Orlando Robinson.
After taking one shot in the season opener, Lowry took a more aggressive approach in the second game of the regular season.
Lowry took one shot in Wednesday’s opener and it came with 1:24 left in the first quarter.
But Lowry wasn’t as passive on Friday, taking his first shot just 1:52 into the game and four shots in the first half.
Lowry finished the Heat’s loss with 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 shooting on threes, seven rebounds and five assists.
This is an improvement from his stat line from the opener of zero points, two rebounds, two assists and two steals in 32 minutes. That marked just the third game since Lowry joined the Heat and the fifth game in Lowry’s NBA career that he finished scoreless when playing more than 30 minutes.
The schedule doesn’t get any easier for the Heat.
Next up is a matchup against the Timberwolves on Saturday night to wrap up a difficult road back-to-back set for the Heat’s third game in four days. The Heat is scheduled to land in Minneapolis around 2 a.m. Central Time following the three-hour flight from Boston.
The Heat has lost five straight games to the Timberwolves in Minneapolis, with three of those games coming on the second night of a back-to-back like Saturday’s contest.
“We’ll look to go for the W,” Adebayo said of the Heat’s mentality entering Saturday’s matchup against the Timberwolves. “We felt like we dropped one tonight, so recover and go out there and try to get us one tomorrow.”
The Heat then wraps up the three-game trip with a showdown against Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard and the Bucks on Monday in Milwaukee.
Friday’s loss in Boston marked the start of 12 road games in a 16-game span. Making it even tougher is the fact that eight of those 12 road games come against teams that made the playoffs last season.
This story was originally published October 27, 2023 at 10:08 PM.
