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Celtics roar back from 26-point deficit to beat Heat 98-88

ESPN BOSTON

Chris Forsberg

BOSTON -- Isaiah Thomas had 21 points to help the Boston Celtics rally from 26 points down to beat the Miami Heat 98-88 on Wednesday night.

Coupled with Atlanta's loss to Washington, Boston earned the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference. The Hawks' loss also gave Miami the third seed and its fifth Southeast Division title in six years.

The Celtics will face the fourth-seeded Hawks in the first round. Miami will take on No. 6 seed Charlotte.

Avery Bradley added 17 points and seven rebounds. Evan Turner finished with 16 points for Boston.

Joe Johnson and Hassan Whiteside each had 19 points to lead the Heat. Goran Dragic added 18 points and Dwyane Wade finished with 17.

Boston swept a regular-season series from Miami for the first time since 2009-10.

Miami jumped out to its double-digit lead before the Celtics roared back in the third quarter using a 23-3 run to get back into the game.

The Heat looked to be running away in the first half.

That changed in the third quarter with the Heat scoring just five points -- all by Johnson -- on 5-for-20 shooting as the Celtics closed to within 67-63 entering the fourth.

The period also ended with a shouting match between Marcus Smart and Dragic. Udonis Haslem, who was out resting a sore left foot, also got involved coming off the bench. Double technical fouls were issued to both sides.

It didn't slow down the Celtics, who kept attacking and eventually took the lead on three-point play by Kelly Olynyk in the opening minutes of the final period.

The Celtics tied their season low for points in quarter with 13 in the first quarter Wednesday. Miami ended the quarter on a 23-4 run.

Dragic nearly outscored Boston by himself with 12 points.

TIP-INS

Heat: Five points in third quarter was a season-low for points in a quarter. ... Miami swingman Justise Winslow, who was questionable with a sprained left ankle, was able to play.

Celtics: Outscored the Heat 18-0 in the paint in the third quarter.

UP NEXT

Celtics: Will face Atlanta in the first round.

Heat: Will face Charlotte in the first round.
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STUDS AND DUDS: CELTICS COMEBACK FROM 26 DOWN, BEAT HEAT IN SEASON FINALE

WEEI

By Josue Pavon

Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas (4) reacts during the second half of a game against the Miami Heat at TD Garden (Mark L. Baer-USA TODAY)

It was a comeback for the ages.

With a chance to grab home court advantage throughout the playoffs, the Celtics made a historic comeback in their season finale against the Heat. The Celtics came back from being down 26 points in the third quarter on their way to a 98-88 win over the Heat at TD Garden.  Isaiah Thomas’ 21 points led five Celtics in double figures and Avery Bradley added 17. Joe Johnson and Hassan Whiteside each scored 19 points to lead the Heat.

Celtics dug themselves into a deep hole, early on, as the Heat went on a 21-2 first quarter run and went into the second quarter up, 35-13 — their biggest lead of the night. Miami dissected the Celtics’ defense and scored in the paint with ease. Defensively, the Heat suffocated the Celtics by contesting jump shots and double-teaming the post. The Heat took a 62-38 lead into the half.

In the third quarter, the Celtics roared back. After trading baskets, the Celtics went on a humongous 20-0 run and ended the quarter trailing by only two points, 67-65. The Heat’s lowly 5-point third quarter set a new Celtics franchise-record for fewest points allowed in a third quarter. With 9:39 left in the final frame, Kelly Olynyk’s 3-point play gave the Celtics their first lead of the night — 72-69, which was followed by Jonas Jerebko’s 3-pointer that completed a 39-7 Celtics run.

Despite the big comeback win, the Celtics will stay in fifth place of the Eastern Conference. The Wizards defeated the Hawks 109-98 — the loss keeps the Hawks in fifth place where they will face the Celtics in the first round of the playoffs.


STUD OF THE NIGHT: Jae Crowder

The comeback was a total team effort on the defensive end, but Crowder  played tremendous on-ball defense on Joe Johnson who killed the Celtics in the first half. After not making shot in the first, Crowder battled back to finish with 13 points and 6 rebounds.

DUD OF THE NIGHT: Isaiah Thomas

Thomas has not been the same since falling and hurting his wrist last Friday against the Milwaukee. He turned in his third straight sub par performance, only scoring 17 points on 4 of 15 shooting. The Celtics will need to Thomas to play like a superstar if they have any chance of winning a first round playoff series.

WHINE OF THE NIGHT: Goran Dragic

During the scuffle at the end of the third quarter Dragic pushed Marcus Smart, then used foul language in the ensuing discussion. Then, Dragic continued the drama after Evan Turner stepped in to defend Smart. It’s too bad that these teams won’t get to play each other in the first round, because there is clearly some T-Swift levels of bad blood.

STAT OF THE NIGHT: 5 Third Quarter Points.

After scoring 62 points in the first half, the Celtics held the Heat to only 5 points in the third. I don’t know what was said in that locker room, but the C’s took it to heart, swarming the Heat on every single possession. The heat shot 10 percent from the field on 2 of 20 shooting.
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NO. 5 SEED CELTICS TO FACE HAWKS IN ATLANTA

CSNNE

By A. Sherrod Blakely April 13, 2016 10:30 PM

The Boston Celtics got an impressive 98-88 come-from-behind win over the Miami Heat on Wednesday, but will still come up short in landing home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

Boston, Miami, Charlotte and Atlanta all finished the regular season with an identical 48-34 record.

But after a series of tie-breaker rules are used, the Celtics wind up as the fifth seed and will start the postseason on the road at Atlanta.

Meanwhile, the Heat will be the No. 3 seed and will open the postseason hosting the sixth-seeded Hornets.

The Celtics will look to build off of last season when a late-season surge catapulted them to the seventh seed in the East where they were eventually swept in the first round by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

112288

Well, now we are 5th seed and last year ......... what 8th. So we are moving up the NBA proverbial ladder.

A great game to hang on going into Atlanta.

Enjoy the ride.........next year will be our year for some real fireworks!

112288

I am still in SHOCK!!!!

I'd like to know what was said at half time.

Who can figure this team out? Watched quarters 2-4 delayed the next morning and almost fell out of my chair. What a comeback.

By the way BobH, the word "friechen" does not exist in the German language. The closest word would be "frech" meaning cheeky.

I'm afraid "friggen" is a stand-in for a vulgar English word which is known to us all.

Berlin-T

BROOKLYN FINISHES WITH THIRD WORST RECORD WHICH MEANS WE HOLD THE 3 RD WORST RECORD GOING INTO THE LOTTERY DRAFT ROUND!

MAYBE WE GET SOME LUCK FOR ONCE WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM SAM!

112288

This team is gonna give me a heart attack.  I don't know what team will show up anymore.  Will it be the team that had 3 straight double-coyote ugly halves vs Charlotte and Miami, or will it be the team that came was down 26 points with :26 seconds left in the 1st half and then came out after halftime and obliterated that lead and won by 10 and pulling away?  The team that gave up 58% shooting and 50 fgas in the first half, or the the one that only allowed 10fgm and 38 fgas for 26% in the 2nd half?  The team that only scored 28 points on 33% shooting in the entire first half or the one that scored 60 points on 54% shooting in the 2nd half?  

Sully with yet another stinker.  6 points on 3-10 and 3 rebounds in 23 minutes?  I know he's the widest body we have, but he has really stunk the joint up the past few weeks.  Every single starter, including Thomas, had more rebounds than Sully.  I realize that, in this new inside-out NBA where bigs are outside and so it's guards that are doing more rebounding, you cannot always look at a big's rebounding number as being a big deal but Miami has Whiteside, who gets homesick outside the paint.  Whiteside was NOT pulling Sully away from the boards.  Isaiah Thomas, the shortest player in the league, had more rebounds than Jared Sullinger.  Kelly and Zeller had fewer too, true, but Kelly did other things and Zeller only played 8 minutes.  What else did Sully do, besides create empty possessions and drive up Hassan Whiteside's free agent market value?

Bradley with a big game.  Think it's easy to stay in front of Goren Dragic?  He lives to run and he has a very good mid-range shot.  Bradley shot 8-12 and had 7 boards.  He was really ripping them down.  

Isaiah with another bad game too.  4-15.  His 1-9 in the first half almost deep-sixed us.  This is playoff basketball we've been playing for the last week or so against Charlotte and Miami and Atlanta and that means the play is more physical.  He's whining about not getting the same calls he was getting during the year.  Yeah, that's how it works.  He's the best regular season player we have.

Kelly had a nice game, not great, but he was calling for the ball inside again and again and again.  That made a big difference because we were one-and-done for the entire first half because our jumpshots weren't going down and we needed to go inside.  Sully was ineffective scoring and Amir struggles to create his own offense.  The only big we have that can do that, really at all, is Kelly.  When Sully is "on" he can do that but we haven't seen that player for a few weeks now.  Kelly's boxscore isn't that impressive, 11 points on 4-9, only 1 rebound in 18 minutes, but his scoring style (inside) is what we needed to get going and then he was able to generate points indirectly with 3 assists and 0 turnovers.  He had 3 steals too.  Our defense was a revolving door for the first half, and our offense is driven by steals, but we weren't getting any.  We had 2 steals in the 1st half.  We ended the game with 7, 3 by Kelly.  

Turner with a big game, again.  Who rises to the occasion, and who doesn't?  This is the time we start separating the men from the boys.  As crazy as he sometimes makes me, he's manning up.  He averaged 10.2ppg on 45.6% shooting, 4.0rpg and 1.0spg this year.  Over the last 10 games, as we have tried to ramp our play up for our playoff run, he has averaged 13.5ppg on 47% shooting, 5.1rpg and 1.1spg.  He has also played good defense.  He leads the league in assists off the bench.  He deserves consideration for NBA 6th man.

Smart back to 0-5.

We ended up in 6th because of all the tie breakers.  That sucks, especially since we could have locked up 3rd if we just had laid one less egg over the last week or two.  Nevertheless, we moved from 7th place last year to a win-loss tie for 3rd this year.  That's pretty good.

Now the games really begin. We cannot have halves like the 2 we had against Charlotte and the first half last night. We cannot even afford 3-5 minute stretches like those halves because Atlanta will exploit them and coming back against them will not be easy.


bob


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