Home Sport Derrick White scores 38 as Celtics defeat Heat 102-88 to take a 3-1 East playoff series lead

Derrick White scores 38 as Celtics defeat Heat 102-88 to take a 3-1 East playoff series lead

Sport — 04/30/2024

Derrick White scored a career-high 38 points, Jayson Tatum added 20 points and 10 rebounds, and the Boston Celtics defeated the Miami Heat 102-88 on Monday night, taking a 3-1 lead in their Eastern Conference first-round series.

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Jaylen Brown scored 17 points and Jrue Holiday had 11 for the top-seeded Celtics, who lost Kristaps Porzingis in the first half due to a right calf ιnjury. Boston triumphed at Miami for the sixth time in a row, improving to 14-3 in their previous 17 games at the Heat’s arena.

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Miami’s Bam Adebayo ended with 25 points, 17 rebounds, and five assists in front of a sellout crowd that included Lionel Messi, but they played without injured players Jimmy Butler (knee) and Terry Rozier (neck). The Heat scored only 84 points in Game 3 and struggled offensively in Game 4. Tyler Herro scored 19 points and Caleb Martin added 18 for the eighth-seeded Heat.

Boston Celtics – NBC Sports Boston

The Celtics can advance to the second round by hosting Game 5 on Wednesday. The winner of Boston-Miami will face the winner of Cleveland-Orlando in the East semifinals; the Cavaliers-Magic series will not conclude until at least Friday.

However, the Celtics now have an ιnjury issue, as Porzingis lifted his jersey over his face in frustration after being wоunded late in the first half. With 5:04 remaining, the drаmа escalated again as Tatum attempted a 3-pointer after a foul was called. Adebayo guarded the deаd-ball play, and Tatum rolled his left ankle but continued to play after Adebayo stepped into his landing area. Referees called a flagrant-1 for Adebayo and a technical on Al Horford.

The good news for Boston: history says this series is almost finished.

This marks the 29th time that a Boston club has taken a 3-1 lead in a best-of-seven series. The Celtics had won all 28 prior series, including seven NBA Finals appearances and a first-round series against Miami in 2010 — the Heat’s final games before luring LeBron James and Chris Bosh to South Florida and building a superteam around Dwyane Wade.

Miami simply couldn’t keep up with this one. White scored 16 points in the first quarter, helping the Celtics build a 34-24 advantage. And no matter what the Heat accomplished on defense, the offense couldn’t close any gaps.

Consider this: the Celtics had 34 points after 12 minutes, but the Heat took nearly 23 minutes—nearly the entire first half—to reach 34 points. Miami had 59 points after three quarters, matching the season low established in Game 1 of this series at Boston.