The Boston Celtics will try to avoid back-to-back losses when they take on the visiting Miami Heat on Monday.
Cleveland beat a short-handed Boston team 115-111 at home Sunday night. The Celtics played without starters Jaylen Brown (illness) and Derrick White (foot). Brown is averaging 24.7 points per game and is the team’s No. 2 scorer. White is fourth in team scoring (18.3 ppg).
Jayson Tatum scored 33 points and Payton Pritchard finished with 24 for the Celtics, who had a 93-81 lead in the fourth quarter. The loss ended Boston’s seven-game winning streak.
“I thought at the end of the third, beginning of the fourth we missed four or five open shots (and) got some empty possessions,” Boston coach Joe Mazzulla said. “Had a couple balls didn’t go our way. Had a blocked shot, two or three, so I think it was just the flow of the game and I thought they made more plays than us down the stretch. But I think it started with the end of the third, beginning of the fourth when we kind of had some of those empty possessions, allowed them to hang around and when we got into a close game it’s about who makes more plays.”
Boston shot 40.0 percent from the field in the loss (38 of 95).
“Against a team that has two rim protectors and is physical you have to find different ways, and so I think it’s just more about just getting to the right spacing and looking for the shot that you want,” Mazzulla said. “For anyone to get an assist the ball has to go in so I’d like to see what our potential assists were, but I thought we shared the ball and got the shot that we wanted more times than not.”
Despite a 31-point performance from Tyler Herro, Miami had its two-game winning streak end with Sunday’s 119-116 loss at Toronto. Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier each tossed in 17 for Miami, which fell to 5-5 in road games this season.
Butler appeared to sustain a knee injury while he was fouled making a layup with 1:27 to play. He came out of the game with 24.2 seconds left. Butler told reporters he’s unsure if he’ll be able to play Monday.
“I’m cool,” Butler said. “Banged up. Ain’t nothing new. I don’t know (if he’ll play against Boston). We’ll see how I feel wherever I wake up in the morning, get all the treatment that I can get and hopefully I’m ready to rock.”
Herro made 6 of his 12 3-point attempts, but missed a 3-point shot that would have tied the score with 29 seconds remaining. Herro has scored at least 20 points in 12 of the Heat’s first 18 games this season. He entered Sunday’s contest averaging a team-high 23.6 points per game.
Miami received 13 points and a season-high 20 rebounds from Bam Adebayo, who had a career-best 21 rebounds in a loss at Toronto in 2018.
The Heat allowed a season-high 68 points in the paint during the loss.
Monday’s matchup will start a stretch of four home games in six days for the Celtics.
