Former NBA big man Kendrick Perkins may have spoken juuust a little too soon about dismissing the Miami Heat’s chances of upsetting his former team, the Boston Celtics, in the first round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs. Following the Heat’s brutal 114-94 road loss to the Celtics in Game 1 of the series, Perkins all but declared Miami’s season over.
“There really are levels to this. I mean, the Miami Heat could go 100 percent from the field and 100 percent from 3, and they’re still going to get swept,” Perkins can be remembered saying (h/t Inside the Heat ). “They just don’t have the personnel to match up with the Boston Celtics.”
Kendrick Perkins’ Miami Heat Prediction vs Celtics Go up in Flames
What Pekins said at the time might have made some sense, but not after the Heat peppered the Celtics with 3-pointers Wednesday night to score a 111-101 victory at TD Garden and tie the series up at 1-1.
In Game 2, Miami’s offense woke up and buried the Celtics in a barrage of threes. Miami went 23/43 from deep with Tyler Herro spearheading the scorching attack of the Heat. Herro scored 24 points with six 3-pointers to his name. Meanwhile, Caleb Martin had 21 points on the strength of a 5/6 shooting from outside the arc Nikola Jovic also joined the 3-point party with three triples to his name.
Now that they have proven Perkins wrong, the Heat will look to sustain their momentum and strike while the iron is hot as they host the Celtics in South Beach for Game 3 of the series this coming Saturday.
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