By TIM REYNOLDS, Associated Press
MIAMI (AP) — A week ago, the Boston Celtics beat the Miami Heat with defense. This time, they did it with offense.
Paul Pierce scored 27 points, Kevin Garnett added 24 points and nine rebounds, and the Celtics made their first eight shots of the fourth quarter to hold off the Heat 115-107 on Tuesday night.
Rajon Rondo posted double-digit assists for the 18th straight game, extending the NBA's longest such streak in 20 years with an 18-point, 15-assist effort. Brandon Bass added 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Avery Bradley scored 11 for the Celtics, who shot a season-high 61 percent and survived two possessions where Miami could have tied the score in the final quarter.
"We talk about it in fighting terms," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. "We told them today before the game, you're in a boxing match, you expect to get hit. They're going to hit you. They did and we withstood it. I thought that was important for our team."
LeBron James finished with 36 points, seven rebounds and seven assists for Miami, which got 20 from Dwyane Wade and 18 from Mario Chalmers. Chris Bosh finished with 13 on 5-for-13 shooting for Miami, which has gone 5-5 in its last 10 games.
The Celtics beat Miami 91-72 in Boston on April 1, a game the Heat called "unacceptable" after establishing season-lows in scoring and shooting.
This one won't sit much better with the reigning Eastern Conference champions, who ousted the Celtics in five games from last year's playoffs and could see them in the second round of the upcoming postseason. No team had shot better than 55 percent against the Heat this season, and Boston's 115 points were two shy of matching a season-high against Miami.
"We left Boston feeling awful at our performance," James said. "I don't feel as bad tonight. Those guys, they were locked in. Not only did they make their open shots, they made their contested shots. ... When you've got it going like that, just tip your hat off. We tip our hat off to them tonight. They won it."
Boston improved to 18-7 since the All-Star break, and dealt Miami a blow in the race for the No. 1 seed in the East. The Heat fell three games behind Chicago after the Bulls beat the New York Knicks later Tuesday night.
"It took a while," Rondo said, "but we're peaking at the right time."
A layup by Wade got Miami within 108-103 with 2:22 left, before Garnett made a high-arcing jumper that dropped softly through the net, his 11th make in 14 shots.
That pretty much described the night. Whenever Miami got close, the Celtics found a way to hold them off.
"It's a game of runs," Pierce said. "You have one of the best teams in the NBA at home. You know they're going to make a run. That's what makes them who they are. They know how to turn it on. We did a good job of holding their runs to a minimum."
Miami had two shots to tie early in the fourth after being down by as many as 18 earlier, before Garnett made jump shots on four straight possessions, the average length of those makes being 19 feet.
A 10-0 run early in the first quarter gave Boston a quick lead — and that wasn't even the Celtics' best run of the opening period. Boston scored the last 11 of the first, the run actually becoming 13-0 when Garnett scored to open the second quarter, and Boston's lead was 35-22.
Everything the Celtics wanted, they got. Boston shot 61 percent in the first quarter, 62 percent in the second. Rivers used eight players, all of them making multiple shots by halftime. Of them, the only one who failed to make at least half his shots was Bass, who more than made up for that with six first-half rebounds.
Here's how well the Celtics were shooting: Miami went into the break shooting 51 percent from the field, 60 percent from 3-point range and 78 percent from the foul line — and Boston was at least 10 percentage points better in every department.
"None of us were expecting that," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "To give up 115 points on our home floor, that's not our style. And we're being made to feel uncomfortable right now. That's really the residual of the last three weeks or so. This is probably the one silver lining out of it, is our group, staff and players, we're getting to know each other now on the level that is needed for us to prepare for the playoffs.
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