BOSTON — The seriously undermanned Miami Heat were able to fight off some serious deja vu Wednesday night.
A night after blowing a game in Milwaukee by being outscored 18-3 down the stretch, the Heat, missing an entire lineup, saw their 20-point fourth quarter lead shrink to six with 1:59 left. This time, though, they held on, escaping with a 93-86 victory over a Boston Celtics team that didn’t show up until the final quarter.
“We just understood that we needed a bounce back from last night,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said after his team remained in seventh place in the Eastern Conference standings. “This will count as a couple of games in the overall standings.
“They made a furious push as the end, and it was good to see us get tested emotionally. We had to manage some of the same things we had to manage the other night. There was a couple of times emotionally where we weren’t as stable as we needed to be, but it was considerably better.”
Despite the absence of guard Dwyane Wade, center Hassan Whiteside and forward Chris Andersen, and with forwards Chris Bosh and Josh McRoberts gone for the year, the Heat (33-38) were great for three quarters. They had an 82-62 lead through three, an advantage that was 22 earlier.
“We were fantastic the first three quarters,” said Miami guard Goran Dragic, dynamic all night en route to finishing with 22 points, seven assists and five rebounds. “I don’t know if it was fatigue or we were thinking it would be like the last one.”
On Tuesday night, the Heat scored nine points in the fourth quarter. On Wednesday, they needed two free throws in the closing seconds to reach 11, scoring three field goals in the last period, none in the final 5:04.
However, the Celtics, who got the deficit down to five with 13.8 seconds left, helped the Heat build their lead. The home team heard boos from a crowd that came expecting to see another win from the surprise playoff contenders.
“Credit them for how hard they were attacking, but we provided no resistance in the paint on drives,” said Celtics coach Brad Stevens, who said he hasn’t beaten a Wade-less team in his two years as a pro coach. “The end of the first half was as bad as we’ve played in a while.”
“We just came out flat and they took advantage of that,” said Boston rookie guard Marcus Smart, who shot 1-for-8 from the floor.
After the game, an exhausted Dragic said, “I feel terrible.” However, he added the contest “was definitely a playoff game” for his team.
Forward Udonis Haslem, playing center with Whiteside out, posted 12 points and 12 rebounds, and forward Luol Deng scored 15 points in the win.
The loss was the fourth in the last five games for the Celtics, who remained in eighth place, tied with the Indiana Pacers but ahead on a tiebreaker.
The Celtics, who lost for the fourth time in five games, didn’t help their cause by going 25-for-37 (67.6 percent) from the foul line. Miami wasn’t much better, hitting 16 of 23 foul shots (69.6 percent).
“For whatever reason, the first three quarters we played really poorly,” Stevens said. “In the fourth quarter, (we) played with great emotion and hard as heck and got us back into it, but then we just didn’t make very good decisions or play with poise late.”
Forward Jae Crowder came off the bench to lead Boston with 19 points and also grabbed seven rebounds, while backup guard Phil Pressey had 11 points, six assists and five rebounds while directing the comeback.
The Celtics (31-40) got guard Isaiah Thomas back after an eight-game absence caused by a bruised lower back, but he clearly wasn’t in game shape.
Coming off the bench in the first quarter, he missed two free throws soon after entering, and things didn’t get much better. He ended up 2-for-7 from the floor, scored four points and committed three turnovers in just under 20 minutes.
Thomas didn’t play in the fourth quarter.
“He struggled,” said Stevens, who wanted to make sure it was a “rhythm” problem and not a lingering woe.
The three officials had a tough night overseeing the chippy game. They called five technical fouls on players, whistled 53 fouls and went to the television monitors at least six times. They also seemed to be trapped in a series of makeup calls.