BOSTON — The Celtics grabbed their second win of the season on Friday, defeating their Eastern Conference rival Miami Heat 119-111.
The game did not start off the Celtics way as the Heat took a commanding 26-13 lead midway through the first quarter. It was reminiscent of the game seven blunder vs the Heat back in June.
Thanks to some gritty-time bench minutes from Oshae Brissett, who made his debut for the Celtics on Friday, he helped the team end the quarter on a 12-2 run to make the score 28-25.
After the first it was a back and forth battle, with the score difference being no higher than seven points.
Derrick White was the hero for Friday’s game, scoring 28 points and shooting 5-7 from three point range. Half of his points came in the fourth quarter, and he also had two flashy blocks at the rim against Jimmy Butler.
Jaylen Brown added 27 points of his own after shooting poorly in the season debut vs the Knicks. He drilled a 3 pointer with 18 seconds left in the game that pushed the Celtics lead to eight points and sent Miami packing their bags.
“We just had to match their physicality,” Brown said postgame. “They came out and they played really hard from the jump, we came out of the game kind of lax and they punched us in the mouth. Two physical games back-to-back, one in New York, and out here in Boston. I thought we responded well.”
Brown also spoke on the teams mindset heading into the fourth quarter.
“Tough it out, you know what I mean? Just be the harder playing team and let the game decide for itself,” Brown added.
Celtics will travel to D.C. to take on the Washington Wizards on Monday at 7 p.m.
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