MIAMI — LeBron James scored 32 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, Dwyane Wade scored 10 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter and the Miami Heat beat the Boston Celtics 93-79 on Monday night in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.
Shane Battier, playing in the conference finals for the first time, scored 10 points and had 10 rebounds for the Heat, which wasted an early 11-point first-half lead before running away to break a halftime tie. Miami outrebounded the Celtics 48-33, and blocked 11 Boston shots.
“We get a lot of the press, we get a lot of the headlines,” James said. “But our teammates, they do everything to help us win ballgames.”
Kevin Garnett scored 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for Boston, which got 16 points, nine rebounds and seven assists from Rajon Rondo and 12 points from Paul Pierce. Ray Allen shot just 1-for-7 from the floor for Boston, which was outscored by 10 in the first quarter and 11 in the third.
“On the road, you can’t have two quarters of lulls,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said.
James had 13 points in the first quarter — two more than the entire Celtics roster — and Miami ran out to a 21-11 lead after the opening period. Garnett made three of his four shots in the quarter, while everyone else in Boston green was 2-for-16 from the floor.
“They came to play,” Rivers said. “I mean Miami.”
Boston scored 35 in the second quarter, erasing what was an 11-point deficit early in the period by scoring 27 points in the final 8:46 of the half to pull into a 46-all tie. Rondo, Garnett and Pierce combined to score 23 points in the quarter. And the Celtics’ comeback happened even while they got hit with three technical fouls in the second quarter, plus Allen missing four first-half free throws — matching his career worst for an entire game.
With the game tied at 50, Rondo missed three shots in a 31-second span early in the third, the last of those getting blocked by Battier — who hit a 3-pointer 11 seconds later. It started a 9-2 Miami burst, including a touchdown pass from Wade to James — Wade grabbed the rebound of a miss by Pierce, spun and delivered a 90-foot pass to the reigning MVP — for an easy score.
Miami led by as many as 13 late in the third, before taking a 72-61 lead into the fourth.
“We’ll go back and see what we can do better,” Rivers said. “And we’ll fix it.”
Game 2 is Wednesday night in Miami.
