Joey Motroni
Coming off one of the team’s most impressive wins of the season against the Houston Rockets without two starters in Jaylen Brown and Sam Hauser, the Celtics possibly outdid that performance, completing a 22-point comeback win against the Miami Heat on Friday night. The final score from TD Garden was 98-96.
Boston had an extremely rough start to the game, quickly getting behind by scores of 11-2 and 19-4. Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla called timeouts after both of those possessions to try to stop the bleeding, but that didn’t happen right away. The Celtics’ offense severely lacked rhythm in the first half, which came along with some staggering team shooting statistics. As a team, Boston shot 12/41 (29.3%) from the field and 1/21 (4.8%) from beyond the arc. This performance led to one of Boston’s worst offensive halves of the season.
Everything changed for Boston in the third quarter.
The Celtics outscored the Heat 36-15 in the third to erase the 22-point deficit and head to the fourth quarter tied up at 74.
Jaylen Brown led the way for the Celtics, as he has done so much this season for Boston, with a game-high 29 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists on 11/25 shooting. Brown eventually found his rhythm after starting the game 0-for-5 from the field.
Payton Pritchard had another excellent game off the bench since he moved back to the role after Anfernee Simons ‘ move to the Chicago Bulls. In 36 minutes, Pritchard had 24 points on 8/15 from the field and 4/6 from long distance. Pritchard has scored 24 or more points off the bench in three consecutive games.
Nikola Vučević, the big man the Celtics got back in the Anfernee Simons trade with Chicago, made his Celtics debut in this comeback victory and made an immediate impact. Vučević finished the night with a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds. Vučević also had 4 assists, one of which was the difference maker when he found Derrick White for the eventual game-winning three-pointer, giving the Celtics the 98-96 lead that would be the final score.
With the win, Boston improves to 34-18 on the season and moves into sole possession of 2nd-place in the Eastern Conference after the Knicks loss to the Pistons on Friday night.
The Celtics will face the Knicks at 12:30 ET on Super Bowl Sunday.
