The Miami Heat (37-14) traveled to Boston to face the Celtics (30-22) on Sunday. At least, we think the team did.
That pictures sums up the evening for the Heat. Head coach Eric Spoelstra made this face more often then the Heat made baskets. The Celtics took over the game early and never looked back.
After one quarter, the Celtics had a 29-19 lead. The Celtics extended that lead to 13-points at one point. Late in the second quarter, it seemed like the Heat had finally showed up. The Heat at one point went on a 12-0 run to pull within 1 of the Celtics. That was one of the only moments when Heat guard, Dwyane Wade, actually looked engaged.
The Celtics then had one more spurt in them and took a 5-point lead into halftime. That is when the game ended, apparently. The Heat never really came out for the second half. The Celtics outscored, outrebounded, and outhustled the Heat in the final half. The Miami Heat were only able to muster 28 points in the second half.
The Heat shot just 35% from the field. Dwyane Wade was 6-for-17 with 15 points, Lebron James was just 11-for-20 with 23 points. Chris Bosh shot an abysmal 2-for-11 for just 4 points. The good news with Bosh was that he did record 11 rebounds.
The player of the game for the Heat had to be Shane Battier. He was the only player that was engaged from the beginning of the game. Battier had 11 points on 4-for-8 shooting and 4 rebounds. Udonis Haslem had 8 points and 8 rebounds as well.
The Heat point guards were completely dominated by Rajon Rondo. Niether could stop him on defense and both did not contribute much on the offensive end. The two Heat point guards combined for 9 points on Kobe like 3-for-16 shooting (sorry, I had to).
Good news for Heat fans, the Heat will have a chance to avenge their two humiliating road losses very soon. The Oklahoma City Thunder will be in Miami on Wednesday and the Boston Celtics will be in Miami on April 10th.
The Heat’s chances of winning the Eastern Conference are sinking with each embarrassing road loss they take on the road.