By Stefan Djordjevic / sdjordjevic@eurohoops.net
Evan Fournier went off for 30 points (and eight assists) as he tried to keep the Boston Celtics alive, however, the Miami Heat still prevailed for a 130-124 road win.
The French guard scored his highest since moving from Orlando to Boston and was one point away from his season-high but it wasn’t enough for the Celtics who were down 79-53 at halftime.
It was obvious that their defense wasn’t on the required level for this matchup and, although it improved drastically after the break, they couldn’t overcome the big deficit, despite getting to the six-point margin down the stretch.
Jayson Tatum scored 29 points. For Miami, Jimmy Butler had a slow start but still ended up being his team’s top scorer with 26 points as he stepped up in the second half.
Duncan Robinson added 22 and Bam Adebayo 20 points for the Heat squad which improved to 37-31, the same amount of wins as the fourth-place and fifth-placed New York Knicks (37-30) and Atlanta Hawks (37-31) respectively.
This was an important clash in deciding who will go to the play-in tournament with Boston getting the short end and now holding a 35-33 record behind Miami at the sixth spot with just a few games left.