On Wednesday night, the Miami Heat used a stunning quantity of 3-pointers to flip their season-long home-court advantage.
Tyler Herro contributed 24 points and 14 assists, sinking six of Miami’s 23 three-pointers to set a franchise playoff record. This helped the Heat win 111-101 over the top-seeded Boston Celtics, tying the first-round playoff series at one game apiece.
“It was a very good response,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We also took several shots. It always appears better when you take photos.”
Bam Adebayo and Caleb Martin each scored 21 points for the Heat, who shot an incredible 53.5% from beyond the arc in coming back from a setback in Game 1.
This shattered Miami’s previous playoff record of 20 3-pointers against the Bucks in the 2021 first round.
“They made a conscious effort to have free rein to shoot more,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. Miami maintained a high 3-point shooting % in each quarter, despite missing Jimmy Butler for the third consecutive game due to injury.
With 3:16 left to play, Boston had cut an 11-point lead to six, 102-96, but Martin hit a critical 3-pointer, preventing Boston from reducing the gap further.
“You have to take ’em, based on how they were playing us the first two games,” Spoelstra told the media. “I did not want to get annihilated in that department like we did the game before.”
Jaylen Brown led Boston with 33 points, while Jayson Tatum added 28, demonstrating no residual affects from Martin’s hard foul in Game 1. The series will now shift to Miami for Games 3 and 4 on Saturday and Monday.
