76ers Rival Watch: Jimmy Butler, Heat Down Celtics in Game 2
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The Philadelphia 76ers couldn’t finish the job against the Boston Celtics in the 2023 NBA Playoffs. Perhaps, the Miami Heat will get it done.
After the Celtics avoided elimination twice against the Sixers during the second round, they advanced past Philadelphia to pick up a meeting with the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Many touted the second-round series between the Sixers and the Celtics as the battle between two teams who would likely make it out of the East, but the Miami Heat have been like night and day between the regular season and the playoffs, proving that they cannot be doubted.
Two games into the Eastern Conference Finals run, Jimmy Butler and the Heat are still an eighth-seeded team on a mission to make a run via the Play-In.
After snagging a Game 1 win on the road, Miami returned to TD Garden on Friday night with a bit of a slow start. Although the Heat struggled from the field in the first quarter of action, they managed to keep the game within one point before heading into the second quarter.
With a much better second-quarter showing, the Heat pulled out in front despite trailing by as many as 12 points in the first half. At halftime, the Heat held a 54-50 lead.
Finally, the Celtics really woke up. With a huge boost from their star forward Jayson Tatum, who knocked down five of his eight shots from the field for 15 points, Boston put up 33 points while holding the Head to just 21. Heading into the fourth quarter, the Celtics possessed an 83-75 lead and expanded it to 12 points in the fourth quarter.
But the Heat were far from out of it. In a little under eight minutes on the floor, Jimmy Butler scored nine points off of eight shots. Duncan Robinson also gave his squad a boost by knocking down two of his three shots from beyond the arc for eight points, matching Bam Adebayo’s production for the quarter.
The Heat put together a 36-22 run in the fourth quarter, which allowed them to garner a comfortable 111-105 victory in a matchup where they trailed by double digits. With that win, the Heat go up 2-0 over the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals, with the series headed to South Beach for the first time on Sunday night.
