LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were out for the Heat. Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo didn’t play for the Celtics. The teams had much more to lose in potential injuries than they could gain with another victory in the second-to-last game of the regular season.
The result was a season-low point total for the Heat, who scored the first 11 points of the game but couldn’t stop Pavlovic down the stretch. With Miami’s loss, the Chicago Bulls clinched the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Dexter Pittman had 12 points, James Jones scored 11 and Udonis Haslem grabbed 13 rebounds for the Heat, whose 25 turnovers were a season high. Miami failed to score 20 in any quarter and had just 16 in each of the final two periods.
Marquis Daniels finished with 13 points, Brandon Bass had eight points and eight rebounds for the Celtics. Boston’s Paul Pierce finished with eight points. He started the game, but sat out the fourth quarter while Pavlovic thrilled the remaining fans as the Celtics improved to 3-1 against the Heat this season.
The Celtics are at home Thursday against Milwaukee while the Heat close out the regular season at Washington.
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