BOSTON, United States – Hassan Whiteside scored 20 points while Chris Bosh added 18 to spark the Miami Heat over the Boston Celtics 83-75 Sunday to open a four-game road trip.
The Heat had lost 11 of its past 12 regular-season games at Boston but held off a second-half rally by the Celtics in improving to 21-26, seventh in the Eastern Conference.
Miami’s Tyler Johnson came off the bench to score an NBA career-high 13 points and match Whiteside with a game-high nine rebounds.
Avery Bradley and Tyler Zeller each scored 17 points for the Celtics, while Marcus Smart passed off a career-high nine assists.
But Boston suffered a fifth home defeat in a row, falling to 16-30, 3.5 games behind Charlotte for the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.
The Heat led 44-31 at halftime but the Celtics hit their first seven shots from the floor in the third quarter, pulling even at 55-55 before Miami pulled ahead 61-59 entering the fourth quarter and scored the first eight points of the final period.
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