Celtics Rally, Stun Heat In 98-88 Regular Season-Ending Win

After trailing by 26 points late in the second quarter and 61-38 at halftime, the Boston Celtics rallied to secure a 98-88 victory over the Miami Heat at the TD Garden in Boston Wednesday night.

Celtics Rally, Stun Heat In 98-88 Regular Season-Ending Win

Celtics coach Brad Stevens seemed to look at his players instead of the scoreboard for a good part of the game, and it seemed to have worked.

Miami scored five points on 10 percent shooting in the third quarter– the lowest point total in the third quarter by an opponent in franchise history– and at the end of the same quarter, the Celtics scored 20 straight points.

After two consecutive losses and a terrible string of games at the end of this season, Stevens said he liked the fact that he could just watch his team again without the necessity of calling a timeout.

“I’d say it was one of the very few games that I’ve coached in where I wasn’t really paying attention to the score once that third quarter started,” Stevens said. “I was just paying attention to us. And I was just enjoying watching us play.

“I thought maybe we’d run out of steam after that huge comeback, and sometimes that’s when you give it back, but our bench came in and kept it at the level that our starters started it and that’s why those comebacks are so unusual,” he then added. “Usually you dent them and then you can’t quite get over the hump and then they take advantage of you from there. But I was just enjoying watching us play, which was a nice change from the previous three halves.”

The Celtics (48-34) will now enter the playoffs as the fifth seed, and will begin a first-round series on Saturday in Atlanta against the fourth-seeded Hawks. The team has clearly changed offensively, but still has a lot of work to do in terms of improving defensively.

Members of the 1966, 1976 and 1986 Celtics championship teams were also honored in Wednesday night’s game, and many had court-side seats, including for the first-half slaughter.

In the fourth quarter, Boston went on a 10-0 run that included a game-tying dunk from Evan Turner that tied the game at 69, followed by a Kelly Olynyk three-point play for the lead and a Jonas Jerebko corner trey for a 75-69 edge.

“It was real important for us,” Boston guard Avery Bradley added. “The last two games we haven’t been playing Celtics basketball. We needed to start playing the right way. We fought through adversity and showed the kind of team we can be. Going into the playoffs this is big because it gives us a lot of confidence, and we know what we need.”

BOSTON, MA – APRIL 13: Goran Dragic #7 of the Miami Heat drives to the basket against Marcus Smart #36 of the Boston Celtics in the first half at TD Garden on April 13, 2016 in Boston, Massachusetts.