Jayson Tatum, Celtics Hailed By NBA Fans for Bounce-Back Game 3 Win vs. Adebayo, Heat
April 28, 2024
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown scored 22 points apiece to lead the No. 1 seed Boston Celtics to a 104-84 road win over the No. 8 Miami Heat in Game 3 of the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs on Saturday.
Tatum added 11 rebounds and six assists for the Celtics, who took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.
The Celtics never trailed and led by as many as 29 points. Boston held Miami to 12 points in the first quarter before exploding for 42 points in the second quarter. The C's also committed just five turnovers.
It was a fantastic performance for Boston, which fell 111-101 at home to the Jimmy Butler-less Heat in Game 2. That game featured all five Miami starters scoring 11 or more (led by Tyler Herro's 24), while Tatum and Brown combined for 61 points and didn't get enough offensive help otherwise.
Boston's defense was far better this time around, while the Celtics also got some more offensive production, led by Kristaps Porziņģis (18 points, a trio of three-pointers) and Derrick White (16 points).
Miami clearly felt the absence of Butler, who is still out with a sprained right MCL suffered during the play-in tournament. Bam Adebayo scored 20 points to lead Miami, while Nikola Jovic and Tyler Herro scored 15 apiece.
Ultimately, the Celtics got back on track after a brutal Game 2 defeat, looking far more like the team that paced the NBA with 64 wins and crushed Miami 114-94 in Game 1:
PatriotsMuse @PatriotsMuseLet's go Celtics, win the games you're supposed to win and play defense like that and we're closing this series in 5 games as we should. See what happens when we play hard, we beat them by 20 and they don't score 90. Why can't we keep this mindset at all times?<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Celtics?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Celtics</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBA?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBA</a>
Evan Medina @EVENMEDIANCeltics basketball at its best tonight. They were phenomenal defensively and got great contributions from everyone. LET'S GO C'S!!! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DifferentHere?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DifferentHere</a> <a href="https://t.co/J1jOMIfImW">https://t.co/J1jOMIfImW</a>
Game 4 will go down on Monday in Miami before the series shifts back to Boston for Game 5 on Wednesday.