Heat choke puts Celtics in playoff driver's seat

Michael Beasley's premature first-half celebration.
Last night the Heat played a spectacular second quarter, outscoring the Bulls 33-12 on their way to building a 19-point halftime lead, 51-32.

Then Miami stopped putting the ball in the basket.

The Heat didn't score for the first 5:13 of the second half, and Chicago won the third quarter 33-8.  It didn't get much better for Miami in the fourth, with the Bulls winning the second half by a 57-27 margin on their way to an 89-78 victory.

The loss was disastrous for the Heat (35-44), who are now 1.5 games back of No. 7/8 Boston and Brooklyn (both 36-42) with just three remaining.  Miami is also half a game behind Indiana (35-43).

This is great news for the Celtics playoff chances, as the Heat are the only team of the three that Boston does not own the tiebreaker against.



The C's are in Cleveland tonight, stay tuned to see what LeBron decides to do.



Follow Mark Vandeusen on Twitter @LucidSportsFan