Heat Drop Game 1 to Celtics

The Miami Heat fell 114-94 in Game 1 of the first round of the NBA playoffs to the No.1-seed Boston Celtics, Sunday.

Game 1 in the books. Back again on Wednesday. pic.twitter.com/6efpHMTX3X

— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) April 21, 2024

Game Recap

After defeating the Chicago Bulls in the Play-In Tournament Friday, the Heat secured a spot in the playoffs. It’ll be a long road for Miami to get back to the NBA Finals, and the road started in Boston against the No. 1-seed Celtics. Boston entered the tournament as the best team in the NBA, making the No. 8-seed Heat a major underdog.

Miami had to play without star forward Jimmy Butler, who has a sprained MCL and will miss several weeks. Guard Terry Rozier also missed this game with a neck injury. Bam Adebayo led the Heat, scoring 24 points with four other players recording double-digit points. However, this wasn’t enough as Boston controlled the whole game, leading by as much as 34 points. The Celtics held the Heat to only five offensive rebounds.

Boston was lead by Jayson Tatum, who recorded his first career playoff triple-double with 23 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Six other Celtics also recorded double-figures.

Tempers Flare

Things got heated in the dying minutes of the game as Heat forward Caleb Martin undercut Tatum, resulting in a hard fall to the ground. Tatum landed on his back and teammate Jaylen Brown came to his defense. The play resulted in a double technical on Martin and Brown. Tatum has shook off the incident.

Brian Scalabrine thinks the Heat and Caleb Martin tried to take out Jayson Tatum

"Erik Spoelstra called a timeout with a 1:30 left down by 16, 30 seconds later that play happens… that looked shady to me."

(Via @NBCSCeltics )

pic.twitter.com/34DBFUbB7h

— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) April 21, 2024

What’s Next

Boston was among the teams who made history over the weekend, as all of the home teams went undefeated in Game 1 for the first time since 2013. The Heat will play in Boston in Game 2 of the series on Wednesday before returning to Miami for Games 3 and 4. This is the fourth meeting in five years between the two teams in the playoffs. The Celtics are looking to get revenge after falling to the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals last year. The Heat were also the No. 8-seed at the time and made it to the NBA Finals where they fell to the Denver Nuggets in five games.

BOS, LAC, MIL, and OKC all take Game 1 at home!

The #NBAPlayoffs presented by Google Pixel continues Monday on TNT & NBA TV. pic.twitter.com/UaatlvcjX4

— NBA (@NBA) April 22, 2024

Tip-off for Game 2 is set for Wednesday at 7 p.m.