Miami Heat and Oklahoma City Thunder win - NBA 2011 Playoffs Game-2 Round-up (Part 1)
Miami Heat 102 – Boston Celtics 91
The Miami Heat put the Boston Celtics in a 2-0 hole, as they defeated them 102-91 in the Eastern Conference semi-finals on Tuesday night at the American Airlines Arena. With this victory the Heat are now the in-charge of the best
of the seven-game series.
LeBron James scored a game-high 35 points for the Heat and led the pack. Out of his 35 points, 24 came in the second half of the game. James spent 44 minutes on the court and shot 14 of 25 from the field. Besides his points, James
also clutched seven boards and swatted two assists.
Dwyane Wade chipped in with 28 points on 8 for 20 shooting.
"LeBron was physically, mentally, and emotionally tough for us tonight. That set the tone for everybody and Dwyane, obviously, on both ends of the court."
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said about James after the game.
Boston opened the first quarter on a fierce note and swiftly raced to a 9-4 advantage. The Heat came rushing behind them and pulled alongside, but failed to grab the lead as James missed two jumpers.
However, the Heat remained within the striking range and finally snatched the lead 23-21 as Mike Bibby swished a three-pointer with just 1:27 to go in the first, before they took the quarter away from them.
The second quarter was the lowest scoring period of the entire game, as both teams scored not more than 20 points. Mike Miller boosted Miami with his whooshing three-pointer right at the tip of the second. That ignited the battle
of supremacy as both teams tried to dominate each other and scores tied on three occasions. Before, the Heat finally able to nipped the Celtics with an 11-6 run and led them 47-42 at the halftime.
Trailing by five points the Celtics gathered themselves after the break and made the spurt that rattled the Heat. Boston’s 15-9 run put them one point ahead of Miami 56-57, but they failed to stretch the lead. As James appeared
on the scene and set the stage on fire with his ferocious game play in which he thumped 12 points including two successive 3’s that helped Miami capping another quarter in their favour.
The turning point of the game came in the final quarter, when the Celtics tied the scores 80 all with 7:09 remaining, but Wade swatted one to an open Mario Chalmers, who hit a 24-foot three-pointer that started a 14-0 blitz, which
was enough to hold the Celtics, who had made several runs during the game. From there on Boston started fading away and the Heat went on winning the second straight game of the series.
Miami’s bench had an off night, but Wade and Chris Bosh made up for them, together they tallied 45 points. Bosh finished up with 17 points and 11 boards for the Heat.
The Heat grabbed 44 rebounds in the entire game out of which 12 were offensive and their biggest lead during the game was of 14-point.
Rajon Rondo led the Celtics with his 20 points and 12 assists, while Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce scored 16 and 13 points respectively. Both teams scored 38 points from the paint.
Next up the two teams will meet on Saturday for Game 3. Miami need two more victories to win the series, while Boston will try to learn from their mistakes and look to make a surprise comeback in the Game 3 of the second-round.
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