Even without their star player Jimmy Butler, the Miami Heat(46-36) beat the Boston Celtics(64-18) by a score of 111-101, according to ESPN. Seeing as the series is now headed to South Beat for two games, Miami has the potential to take a 3-1 series lead against the Celtics.

The win can be attributed to multiple Miami players, seeing as all Heat starters scored in double figures for the game. While Herro led the way with 24, Bam Adebayo and Caleb Martin each dropped 21 points, with Jaime Jacquez Jr.(a rookie) being the next leading scorer on Miami’s team with 14 points. 

In addition to a multitude of Heat players having terrific individual performances, the team’s ability to shoot from the three-point line was able to accentuate and ultimately gain the win for the team. Miami made 23 of their 43 three pointers, meaning they shot at a 53.5% clip from distance. The only point of worry that comes from this can be seen by examining the winning margin for the game. Seeing as the Celtics only lost by 10 with the Miami Heat shooting lights-out from three, it’s evident that Miami will struggle significantly when the three ball isn’t falling, since maintaining a team three-point percentage as was seen in the second game against Boston is incredibly difficult. 

While Boston’s performance is appalling considering the amount of talent on their roster, their playoff experience, with Tatum, Brown, Holiday, and Horford having played in recent NBA Finals runs is enough to keep them heavy favorites against Miami even with the series heading to Miami. Even in the loss against Miami, Boston shot 37.5% from the three-point line(according to Pro Basketball Reference), showing that the Celtics still can ride their shooting to stay in games. Though their field goal percentage was significantly worse than their three-point percentage(being at 46.3% according to Pro Basketball Reference), as soon as that percentage goes up, their chances to consistently win games also increases dramatically. 

With Miami holding home field advantage for games three and four of the series, the Celtics hope to steal at least one of the games to put some more pressure on a team missing their best player.