Jaylen Brown poured in 29 points and Payton Pritchard added 24 as the Boston Celtics erased a season-high 22-point deficit to edge the Miami Heat 98-96 on Friday night.
Derrick White drilled a corner 3-pointer with 1:31 remaining to give Boston the lead for good, capping a furious comeback for the Celtics, who extended their winning streak to five games. White finished with 21 points despite shooting 6-of-20 from the field.
Nikola Vucevic, acquired at the trade deadline, made his Celtics debut and delivered a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds. Boston rebounded from a brutal shooting start, knocking down nine of its final 15 attempts from beyond the arc after missing 20 of its first 21 3-pointers.
Miami nearly escaped with the win, but Davion Mitchell missed a potential game-winning 3 from the corner with 2.7 seconds left. Andrew Wiggins led the Heat with 26 points, while All-Star Norman Powell added 24.
The Heat dominated early, racing to a 15-2 lead and building an advantage as large as 22 points. Miami carried a commanding 59-38 lead into halftime as Boston shot just 28 percent in the opening two quarters.
The momentum flipped in the third quarter. After Miami pushed its lead to 67-49, Boston closed the period on a 25-7 run over the final 7:06. Pritchard and White ignited the surge with back-to-back 3-pointers, and Pritchard hit another coming out of a timeout to pull the Celtics within striking distance. White’s two free throws briefly gave Boston its first lead, though Powell answered with a buzzer-beating layup to tie the game at 74 entering the fourth.
Vucevic received a warm welcome from the TD Garden crowd, drawing chants of “Voooch!” after scoring twice inside during the third-quarter rally.
Boston completed the comeback in the final minutes and improved to 3-0 against Miami this season.
Up next:
The Heat continue their road trip at Washington on Sunday, while the Celtics host the New York Knicks.
