Jaylen Brown scored 22 of his 31 points in the second half, Kemba Walker added 28 and the Boston Celtics cruised past the visiting Miami Heat 112-93 Wednesday night.
Jayson Tatum had 19 points, and Robert Williams III came up with 10 rebounds as the Celtics won for the fourth time in their last five games.
Jimmy Butler led all scorers with 37 points, and Kelly Olynyk chipped in 12 for the Heat, who had a three-game winning streak snapped.
Up by eight to begin the third, the Celtics stretched their lead in the quarter as high as 16 when Brown finished an alley oop made it 68-52 with 6:31 to go. Butler drained a pair of 3-pointers and had 10 points as the Heat responded with a 14-3 run to get within 71-66 with 2:32 remaining.
Brown restored order for Boston with back-to-back treys as the Celtics would enter the fourth up 82-69.
A Carsen Edwards 3-pointer gave Boston the lead by 20, 89-69, with 10:10 left in the game, and the Celtics maintained their double-digit lead the rest of the way to close out the win.
The Heat grabbed the first 10-point lead, 31-21, on a Tyler Herro 3-pointer at 10:31 of the second quarter. Tatum scored seven straight points for the Celtics in a 10-2 run to get back in it, and Boston went ahead 40-39 on a pair of Walker free throws with 3:45 to go.
The Celtics ended the half on a 12-3 run to lead 52-44 at the break. Walker had 17 points, while Butler paced the Heat with 14.
Butler had 11 points as Miami led 28-20 after one.
The Heat played without head coach Erik Spoelstra, who returned to Miami earlier in the day for the birth of his second son. Assistant Dan Craig served as head coach for the game.
--Field Level Media
Miami | Boston | |
Jimmy Butler 37 | Scoring | Jaylen Brown 31 |
Jimmy Butler 4 | Assists | Kemba Walker 7 |
Bam Adebayo 7 | Rebounds | Daniel Theis 10 |
Jimmy Butler 7 | Free Throws Made | Jaylen Brown 6 |
Duncan Robinson 3 | Steals | Kemba Walker 2 |
Tyler Herro 1 | Blocks | Jayson Tatum 3 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
Miami | 93 | 44.2 | 14-38 | 11-17 | 20 | 40 | 2 | 7 | 19 |
Boston | 112 | 44.3 | 16-41 | 26-32 | 21 | 46 | 8 | 8 | 11 |