Bam Adebayo has 30 points, Heat rallies past Celtics 98-95

MIAMI (AP) —Bam Adebayo isn’t going to hear his name when the NBA announces theAll-Star Game starters Thursday night. He knows that.

But All-Starreserves are picked by coaches. Their ballots for the Feb. 19 gamein Salt Lake City are due early next week.

And Adebayomade his case for their votes on Tuesday night. He scored 30points, grabbed 15 rebounds, and put Miami ahead for good on ajumper with 20.4 seconds left — carrying the Heat to a 98-95victory over the Boston Celtics.

“They bootedus in the Eastern Conference finals last year,” said Adebayo, whois averaging 21.6 points and 10.2 rebounds so far this season. “Ifeel like a lot of guys still carry that.”

Miami used a15-0 run in the fourth to erase a 10-point deficit and held Bostonto 13 points in the final quarter — matching the fewest points bythe Celtics in any period this season.

Adebayo hadnine points and eight rebounds in that fourth quarter.

“It’s notreally my nature to go out and campaign,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstrasaid. “I just think he’s an All-Star and he showed it tonight. It’sa big win. It was on TV. I hope people notice.”

The Celticshad been 26-3 when leading at halftime and 30-3 when leading afterthree quarters. They led 58-50 at the half, 82-75 going into thefourth and pushed that margin out to 87-77 early in the finalquarter.

“It was justtwo good teams out there playing,” Celtics interim coach JoeMazzulla said. “They made a few more plays at the end than wedid.”

Jayson Tatumfinished with 31 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists for theCeltics. Derrick White scored 23 points, and Robert Williams IIIhad 11.

Miami’s TylerHerro stole a cross-court pass thrown by Tatum with just over asecond remaining, denying Boston a chance to tie or take the lead.Haywood Highsmith’s free throw with 0.6 seconds left put Miami upby three.

Boston calledtime, and Payton Pritchard’s straightaway 30-footer fell short astime expired.

Pritchardplayed 42 minutes because the Celtics were short-handed. Boston waswithout three would-be starters in Jaylen Brown (right adductor),Al Horford (lower back stiffness) and Marcus Smart (right ankle) —as well as Malcolm Brogdon, out for personal reasons.

Miami playedwithout Jimmy Butler, who sat out with lower back tightness.

Boston led87-77 when Williams got an alley-oop dunk with 8:47 left. The Heatscored the next 15 points while the Celtics missed 10 consecutiveshots — but Tatum’s three-point play with 2:19 left stopped both ofthose runs and got Boston within 92-90.

“Our spacingwas a little off,” Mazzulla said.

Boston’sGrant Williams hit a 3 to tie it at 95 with 43 seconds left, andAdebayo hit a 13-footer on the next Miami possession to put theHeat ahead for good.

Highsmith had15 points and 10 rebounds, Max Strus scored 13 points and VictorOladipo had 12 for the Heat.

“If we haveto win ugly, so be it,” Spoelstra said.

TIP-INS

Celtics:Tatum had 21 points in the first half. He’s averaging 15.3 pointsin first halves this season, third-best in the NBA behind only LukaDoncic and Joel Embiid. ... Boston fell to 7-1 on the second nightof back-to-backs this season. The Celtics were the only NBA teamentering Tuesday with an unbeaten record in those situations.

Heat: Miamimissed 14 of its last 16 shots in the first half. ... Butler hadplayed in 11 consecutive games, a season-long streak. ... Miami(27-22) is a season-high five games over .500. ... Kyle Lowry hadeight assists and five rebounds for the Heat. ... Miami turned theball over only eight times, and Boston turned those into sixpoints. The Heat turned 17 Celtics turnovers into 17 points.

RAREWIN

Includinglast season’s Eastern Conference finals, the Celtics had won fourstraight games at Miami — and 13 of their last 16 true road gamesagainst the Heat, excluding Miami’s designated home games from thebubble during the 2020 restart.