Boston Celtics deliver a demoralizing defeat to Miami Heat in game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals
Miami Heat again came back in the match and took the lead with a three pointer by LeBron James with 8:10 left in the game. His shot was followed by four straight points by Wade, including two free throws, to give Miami a 78-72
lead. But a jump shot by Garnett with 2:54 left gave Boston an 81-80 edge.
After Dwyane Wade levelled the game at 85 with a driving layup, Haslem fouled Pierce who connected on both free throw attempts to put the Celtics up by 2.
James missed a three pointer on the following possession but the rebound was collected by Udonis Haslem who was fouled by Pierce. Haslem could only connect 1 of 2 free throws after which Pierce sank a three pointer with James’
hand in his face to silence the American Airlines Arena and give Boston a 90-86 lead with only 52 seconds left.
Miami tried to reduce the deficit by fouling the Celtics, but both Allen and Garnett scored on both of their free throw attempts and Boston held on to win 94-90.
"We just told our guys, `Hang in there, just hang in there, don't overreact. The longer we're in the game, the better we'll play,” said Celtics coach Doc Rivers.
Paul Pierce had 19 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists for the night, going 6 of 19 from the field. Brandon Bass had 10 points and 4 rebounds and Ray Allen had 13 points and 7 rebounds. He was 2 of 9 from the field and 8 of 8 from
the foul line.
Rajon Rondo struggled from the field with only 7 points for the night and shooting 20% from the field. He did have 13 assists in the game.
"We stayed with it. We had a rough first quarter, first half. We got our stops and made our run ourselves. And when we had to, we had stops,” said Garnett.
The Miami scoring was carried by James with 30 points and Dwyane Wade with 27, but no other player finished with double figure points. Wade had 6 rebounds and 3 assists to go with his 27 points, and was 10 of 22 from the field.
Coach Erik Spoelstra played Bosh from the bench and limited his playing time to 14 minutes. He had 9 points and 7 rebounds in the 14 minutes, including 6 offensive rebounds. The Heat will be hoping he can play more minutes in game
6.
Boston shot 40.7% from the field but also held Miami to 39% shooting for the night. In addition to that, Boston were 6 of 15 from the distance while Miami were only 7 of 26. Miami had a 49-39 rebounding advantage over the Celtics
with Bosh returning and Haslem having a good rebounding night.
However, the inability of their role players to contribute offensively hurt Miami, as they were unable to score consistently and allowed Boston to make a comeback after holding a comfortable lead in the third period. Boston had
13 steals compared to only 6 for Miami.
"We wouldn't want to be in this situation but we never get too high or too low in a series. We had an opportunity to come home and take a lead, but we didn't. So we have to go up to Boston and win a game,” said James after the
game.
Game 6 will take place at the TD Garden where the Heat will be facing elimination for the first time in the postseason.
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