The Celtics (40-39) sat Kevin Garnett (ankle) and Paul Pierce (ankle) against the Heat Friday night and were dealt an expected loss, 109-101, in Miami.
The Heat played LeBron James and Dwyane Wade and it took the duo a quarter to get reacclimated after not playing together for two weeks. They scored 41 points in the second quarter despite a strong first half effort by the star-less Celtics.
What they’ll be saying: This game had little meaning in the grand scheme of things, as evidenced by Jordan Crawford starting and scoring 20 points. The Celtics are nearly locked into a first round matchup with the Knicks. The Celtics are three games out of the sixth spot and lead the eighth-seeded Bucks by three games. New York was up by three games on Indiana for the second seed as of Friday night. The playoffs begin a week from Saturday.
