Celtics top Heat 102-88 to take 3-1 series lead

MIAMI (AP) — Derrick White scored a career-high 38 points, Jayson Tatum added 20 points and 10 rebounds, and the Boston Celtics beat the Miami Heat 102-88 on Monday night to take a 3-1 lead in their first Eastern Conference. -round series.

Jaylen Brown scored 17 points and Jrue Holiday had 11 for the top-seeded Celtics, who lost Kristaps Porzingis in the first half to what the team called a right calf injury. Boston won at Miami for the sixth straight time and improved to 14-3 in the Heat’s last 17 home games.

Bam Adebayo finished with 25 points, 17 rebounds and five assists for Miami, which had a sold-out crowd — including Lionel Messi — but again played without injured starters Jimmy Butler (knee) and Terry Rozier (neck). The Heat only managed 84 points in Game 3 and struggled on offense again in Game 4. Tyler Herro scored 19 points and Caleb Martin had 18 for the eighth-seeded Heat.

The Celtics can advance to the second round on Wednesday when they host Game 5. The winner of Boston-Miami will meet the winner of Cleveland-Orlando in the East semifinals; that the Cavaliers-Magic series won’t end until at least Friday.

But the Celtics now have an injury concern, with Porzingis lifting his jersey over his face in exasperation after suffering an injury late in the first half. And with 5:04 remaining, the drama intensified further when Tatum attempted to shoot a 3-pointer after a foul was called. Adebayo defended the dead ball play and Tatum rolled his left ankle – but remained in the play – after Adebayo entered his landing zone. The referees called a flagrant-1 on Adebayo and a technical on Al Horford.

The good news for Boston: History says this series is about to end.

This is the 29th time a Boston team has taken a 3-1 lead in a best-of-seven series. The Celtics have won the previous 28 series, including seven times in the NBA Finals and a first-round series against Miami in 2010 – the last games the Heat played before luring LeBron James and Chris Bosh to South Florida and to form a super-team around Dwyane. Wade.

Miami just couldn’t keep up. White had 16 points in the first quarter, when the Celtics took a 34-24 lead. And no matter what the Heat did on defense, the offense couldn’t fill any gaps.

Consider: The Celtics had 34 points after 12 minutes, and it took the Heat nearly 23 minutes — almost the entire first half — to reach the 34-point mark. Miami mustered just 59 points through three quarters, matching a season low set in Game 1 of this series in Boston.