The Celtics rallied from 19 down to beat the Miami Heat 119-114 Thursday night at the Kaseya Center.
Anfernee Simons scored 18 of his season-high 39 points in the fourth quarter and finished 13-of-28 overall from the field, including hitting 7-of-16 from 3-point range off the bench.
"Obviously, we were down big," Simons said in his postgame comments. "And we were kind of struggling. So, I just wanted to be aggressive."
Jaylen Brown added 27 points, 7 rebounds after getting off to a slow start, while Sam Hauser chipped in 17 points to help the C's snap a two-game skid and improve to 25-15 (second place in the East).
"That was an amazing performance off the bench," Brown told reporters of Simons' performance. "That was one of his best performances of the year. And we needed every basket."
Norman Powell led the Heat with 26 points, while Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro each notched 22 points respectively and Andrew Wiggins had 16 points, 8 rebounds for Miami, who fell to 21-20 on the season after losing five of their last seven.
The Celtics trailed 28-9 to start the game, 54-64 at the break and 83-93 to start the final frame before Simons scored 11 consecutive points as part of a 18-7 run to grab their first lead since it was 4-3 in the opening minutes of the first quarter.
The lead would switch hands two more times before Brown hit a go-ahead 3-ball to put Boston in front (107-105) for good with 4:05 left to play. Despite the Heat getting within three in the final 11.1 seconds on a Adebayo 3-pointer, they ended up being outscored in the period 36-21.
On a night when Derrick White (1-of-7) and Payton Pritchard (1-of-4) combined for just 10 points, Joe Mazzulla turned to Simons -- who went 6-of-12 from the field in the fourth quarter, but it was his defense that went unnoticed in the win according to the Celtics' head coach.
"I thought he was great," Mazzulla said of Simons in his postgame presser. "The scoring is what he's done most of his career, but to me it's the way he defended. He had a blindside block, had a couple of in-traffic rebounds, was physical at the point of attack -- just a complete game.
"Credit to him and credit to his teammates for kind of creating that environment for him to be able to do it. He obviously kept us in it in the first half and I think helped us pull away a little bit at the end. But just making winning basketball plays for most of the game."
The Celtics are 1-1 on their four-game road trip, which continues Saturday night when they face the new-look Atlanta Hawks (20-23).
While both teams shot 45% from the field, the Celtics were 13-of-39 (33%) from behind the arc to Miami's 15-of-42 (36%) from 3-point territory. Boston out-rebounded the home team 51-40 and outscored them in the paint 50-42. The C's also handed out 22 assists on 41 baskets and turned the ball over 13 times to the Heat's 25 dimes on 39 made shots and committed 10 turnovers.
Joel Pavón
No comments:
Post a Comment