MIAMI — The way LeBron James and Dwyane Wade are rolling right now, one bad quarter is hardly too much for the Miami Heat to overcome.
MIAMI — The way LeBron James and Dwyane Wade are rolling right now, one bad quarter is hardly too much for the Miami Heat to overcome.
And with that, the Heat are three wins away from another trip to the NBA finals.
James scored 32 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, Wade scored 10 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter and the Heat beat the Boston Celtics 93-79 on Monday night in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.
“One down. And they still have an opportunity in Game 2 to accomplish what they want to,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said, referring to how Boston can still grab home-court advantage by winning Game 2. “At times it was a strange game. Some good runs, both teams. We felt we could have played better, and I’m sure they felt the same thing. But we found a way to grind it.”
Shane Battier, playing in the conference finals for the first time, had 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Heat, who wasted an early 11-point first-half lead, then gave up 35 second-quarter points before running away to break a halftime tie — getting going with a 9-2 run early in the third.
Miami outrebounded the Celtics 48-33, blocked 11 shots and didn’t trail at any time.
“A block is like a dunk,” Wade said. “It gets your team going.”
Kevin Garnett had 23 points and 10 rebounds for Boston, which got 16 points, nine rebounds and seven assists from Rajon Rondo and 12 points from Paul Pierce. Ray Allen shot just 1 for 7 from the floor for Boston, which was outscored by 10 in the first quarter and 11 in the third.
“On the road, you can’t have two quarters of lulls,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said.
Game 2 is Wednesday night in Miami.
And while both sides would say there’s a long way to go in this series, Game 1 winners have a decided edge in any best-of-seven, the conference final being no exception. In the most recent 10 postseasons, teams with 1-0 leads in conference finals have advanced 15 out of 20 times.
James and Wade scored 197 points in the final three games of Miami’s second-round series with Indiana, all those games being Heat wins. The momentum carried over into Game 1 with the Celtics.
“We get a lot of the press, we get a lot of the headlines,” James said. “But our teammates, they do everything to help us win ball games.”
It’s the third straight year the Heat and Celtics have met in the playoffs, and the third straight year James has seen his postseason path go through Boston — the first of those matchups coming in 2010 in his final run with Cleveland.
Each of those came in the first or second rounds, not this close to the NBA finals. And yes, the rivalry seems to be heating again.
“They’re home, they’re comfortable and when you’re comfortable you do things like that,” Garnett said, suggesting that Miami was showboating at times down the stretch. “We have to show them to take them out of their comfort zone. We’ve got to fight a lot harder.”
Last season’s Miami-Boston series ended with James scoring the final 10 points of Game 5, and the start of this year’s matchup had him putting on another offensive display.
He had 13 points in the first quarter — two more than the entire Celtics roster — and Miami ran out to a 21-11 lead after the opening period. Garnett made three of his four shots in the quarter, while everyone else in Boston green was 2-for-16 from the floor.
Heat 93, Celtics 79
BOSTON (79)
Pierce 5-18 0-0 12, Bass 4-11 0-2 8, Garnett 9-16 5-6 23, Rondo 8-20 0-0 16, Allen 1-7 3-7 6, Stiemsma 2-2 2-2 6, Pietrus 0-1 1-4 1, Dooling 1-3 0-0 3, Pavlovic 0-1 0-0 0, Hollins 1-1 0-0 2, Daniels 1-1 0-0 2, Moore 0-0 0-0 0, Williams 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 32-81 11-21 79.
MIAMI (93)
Battier 4-11 0-0 10, James 13-22 6-9 32, Turiaf 2-3 0-0 4, Chalmers 3-9 3-4 9, Wade 8-13 6-6 22, Anthony 1-2 1-4 3, Miller 3-5 0-0 8, Cole 0-1 0-0 0, Haslem 0-2 0-0 0, Jones 1-3 0-0 3, Howard 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 36-72 16-23 93.
Boston 11 35 15 18 — 79
Miami 21 25 26 21 — 93
3-Point Goals—Boston 4-14 (Pierce 2-4, Dooling 1-3, Allen 1-4, Rondo 0-1, Pietrus 0-1, Pavlovic 0-1), Miami 5-25 (Miller 2-2, Battier 2-9, Jones 1-3, Cole 0-1, Wade 0-1, James 0-3, Chalmers 0-6). Fouled Out—None. Rebounds—Boston 48 (Garnett 10), Miami 54 (James 13). Assists—Boston 19 (Rondo 7), Miami 17 (Wade 7). Total Fouls—Boston 19, Miami 21. Technicals—Allen, Boston Coach Rivers, Rondo, Boston delay of game, Boston defensive three second. A—19,912 (19,600).