MIAMI (AP) — LeBron James scored 11 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter, Chris Bosh added 16 and the Miami Heat blew an 18-point lead before rallying to beat the Boston Celtics 93-86 on Tuesday night.
Chris Andersen scored 13 points and made all five of his shots for Miami, which ended the game on a 9-0 run.
Brandon Basson scored 15 points, Kris Humphries had 14 points and 13 rebounds, and Jeff Green had 12 points for the Celtics, who outrebounded Miami 46-33 but shot only 39 percent.
Rajon Rondo, still coming around after returning from knee surgery, missed all eight of his shots, plus missed a pair of free throws with the Celtics down four with 44.4 seconds remaining.
Avery Bradley, the Celtics’ other starting guard, was lost in the second quarter with a sprained right ankle.
The Celtics rallied from a 10-point deficit to win 111-110 in their first trip to Miami this season. So clearly, being in a double-digit hole on the road against the two-time champs doesn’t deter them.
They were down by as many as 18 in this one, then steadily began chipping away, getting it down to 11 by halftime, down to four entering the fourth and then taking their first lead since the opening minutes on a dunk by Humphries with 3:08 left — about a half minute after James tried a reverse dunk that rimmed out. Humphries’ dunk made it 86-84. The Celtics didn’t score again.
James made seven free throws, Allen added a jumper and that was it, the 9-0 run that ended the night for Miami.
As if playing without Dwyane Wade isn’t difficult enough for Miami — he was out for the 12th time this season — the Heat found themselves facing a sticky situation at his position just 71 seconds after tip-off.
Ray Allen, who started in Wade’s spot, was called for two fouls in a span of 11 seconds. But the Heat rolled the dice and left him in until 4.3 seconds remained in the opening quarter, a move that paid off two ways. One, Allen didn’t get in any deeper foul trouble. Two, Michael Beasley made those 4.3 ticks on the clock count.
Without even time to work up a droplet of sweat, Beasley banked in a 35-footer at the horn of the first quarter to give Miami a 29-15 edge. And another beat-the-clock 3 — this one by Bosh, with 2.0 seconds left and somewhat less dramatic than Beasley’s — put Miami up 51-40 at intermission.
Miami led by as many as 18 in the second quarter before Boston used a 13-2 run to get to 42-35 late in the period.
That’s when Greg Oden made his first home-court impact with the Heat.
Oden — playing in Miami for the first time since Nov. 12, 2008 — blocked a dunk attempt by Green, then after a timeout had a follow slam of a miss by James to help snuff out the Boston rally.
James had a dunk in transition on the next Miami possession, and the lead was right back up to 11, where it stayed entering the third.
NOTES: The Heat are 24-6 when Wade plays, 6-6 when he doesn’t. … Former Heat C Joel Anthony, who was traded to Boston last week, got a video tribute on the scoreboard and a standing ovation during the first quarter. The ovation was slightly less robust when he hit a jumper in the second quarter, though some still stood and clapped. … James got his trophy for being Eastern Conference player of the month for December at halftime. … The Heat wore their “Name Collection” jerseys with nicknames instead of their regular last names on the back.
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