By Ty Anderson, 985TheSportsHub.com
For the third straight game, the Boston Celtics established a sizable third-quarter lead against the Miami Heat. But this time around, and for the first time all series, the Green made sure it didn’t slip on the way to a 117-106 Game 3 victory over the Heat.
Boston’s first win of the third round came by way of what was a take-charge, punishing approach, with the Celtics scoring a staggering 60 points in the paint, nearly doubling the Heat up (32 points in paint) with an aggressive approach that simply overwhelmed Miami’s weaker links.
In what was a wire-to-wire victory for Boston, the Celtics stormed out to a nine-point lead through the opening 12 minutes of play, and increased it to 13 by halftime by way of an 11-2 run to close out the final two and a half minutes of the half.
The first-half domination was led by Jaylen Brown, too, with 17 of the team’s 62 first-half points on 8-for-12 shooting.
And as mentioned, Brown and the Celtics made sure that there was no third-quarter letdown, with a 26-point frame by way of makes on nine of their 21 field goal attempts (42.9 percent). It wasn’t a continuation of their first-half prowess (they only won the quarter by two points), but it was the complete opposite of their minus-20 third-quarter effort in Game 2.
This game wouldn’t come without a mild heart attack, however, with the Heat storming back and making it a five-point game with under a minute remaining in the fourth quarter. But thanks to some key free-throw makes from Marcus Smart, the Celtics avoided any possible stage for true disaster, putting an end to their two-game slide and slicing their deficit in half.
Brown was the team’s driving force in this game, really, with 26 points on 11-for-17 shooting (64.7 percent). Brown was one of four Celtics to hit the 20-point mark in the win, with Jayson Tatum (25 points), Kemba Walker (21 points), and Marcus Smart (20 points) joining him for a team-wide winning performance.
The Heat, meanwhile, had just one start hit the 20-point mark (Bam Adebayo, 27 points).
The other big story in this one: Gordon Hayward made his return to action after missing 12 straight postseason tilts due to a right ankle sprain. The 6-foot-7 Hayward came off the bench in this one, played without a minutes restriction, and finished with six points, five rebounds, four assists, and three steals in 30:30 of play.
Boston will look to even the series with Game 4 set for Wednesday night.