Miami Heat

BOSTON (AP) — Bam Adebayo scored 31 points with 10 rebounds for the Miami Heat, who blew a 25-point, first-half lead and lost Jimmy Butler to a knee injury but held on to beat the Boston Celtics 109-103 in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals on ...

The Heat also had nine turnovers that led to nine Celtics points. The Heat forced 24 turnovers in all to lead to 33 Miami points. The Celtics played without center Robert Williams III, who missed three games in the second round against Milwaukee with soreness and a bone bruise in his surgically repaired left knee. The situation was repeated when Tatum went down in obvious pain with five minutes left in the fourth. “We didn’t think that it was all of a sudden going to be an easy series and they were going to roll over,” Boston coach Ime Udoka said. Miami still led by 15, 87-72, after three, and made it a 17-point game on Adebayo’s basket to start the fourth. After losing Game 2 at home by 25 points, the Heat opened a 62-37 lead with under three minutes left in the second quarter. “My neck got caught in a weird position,” Tatum said. Smart returned just five minutes later, drawing a huge cheer when the scoreboard showed him walking down the tunnel back toward the court. “Then, when Jimmy was out in the second half, he just stabilized us,” Spoelstra added. “He did his version of what Jimmy does: ‘Do what’s necessary for the game,’” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. Adebayo also had six assists and four of the Heat’s franchise postseason record 19 steals.