Celtics help seeding, knock Heat into 9th in East

Boston's Gordon Hayward scored a game-high 25 points and Kyrie Irving added 23 to lift the Celtics to a crucial road victory over the Miami Heat, 112-102 on Wednesday night. The Celtics' Jayson Tatum scored nine consecutive points in the fourth quarter to help Boston (47-32) remain in a tie with the Pacers (47-32) for fourth place in the Eastern Conference. Indiana defeated the Detroit Pistons 108-89 on Wednesday.

Al Horford tallied 21 points, Tatum 16 and Aron Baynes 10, with a team-high 10 rebounds for the Celtics, who won their second straight game and fourth in their last five. Dion Waiters had 21 points, Hassan Whiteside 18 points and 15 rebounds, Dwyane Wade 17 points, Bam Adebayo 12, Goran Dragic 11 and Kelly Olynyk 10 for the Heat, who lost their second straight.

Miami (38-40) slipped to ninth place in the conference, behind Orlando, in the chase for eight playoff spots. The Magic (39-40) defeated the New York Knicks 114-100. Last in the league in free-throw shooting, the Heat went just 12 of 20 (60 percent) at the stripe. They entered at 69.5 percent.

As they did Monday night in their 110-105 win over Miami, the Celtics started fast with a 9-0 run as Irving hit a pair of jumpers and the Heat were cool from the field. Boston led 30-8 at one point. However, Waiters' layup at 1:24 gave Miami its first lead, and the Heat used a 13-4 run and held Boston to 1 of 8 shooting at the first quarter's end to hold a 31-29 advantage.

Boston flipped the script on Miami in the second quarter and took advantage of sloppy ball-handling by the Heat. The home side committed nine turnovers in the first half, and the Celtics went on a 12-8 stretch to lead 53-49 at the halftime break. The Celtics shot 47.5 percent from the field in the first half while the Heat shot just 40 percent.

The Heat cut into the lead in the third quarter, trailing just 83-81. However, Josh Richardson tried to block a breakaway layup by Irving, landed awkwardly against the basket's stanchion and did not return due to a left leg injury. --Field Level Media

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