BOSTON — This time there was no miracle finish.
One game after a steal and slam with 1.6 seconds left capped an improbable comeback, the Celtics were unable to rally from 11 points down in the final three minutes as Kyrie Irving’s potential game-winning shot at the buzzer was no good in a 90-89 loss to the Miami Heat Wednesday at TD Garden.
The Celtics cut the 11-point deficit down to two, and trailed three with 37.1 seconds left, when Irving drove for a one-point game with 27.7 seconds remaining. Celtics coach Brad Stevens chose not to foul with three seconds separating the game and shot clocks and Jayson Tatum rebounded a Dion Waters miss with 6.2 seconds on the clock.
Kyrie Irving got space on a long 2-pointer as the clock expired, but it rimmed out and the Celtics walked off the floor with the loss.
Irving scored 31 points, Jaylen Brown had 16 and Marcus Smart 15 points on 5-of-9 3-point shooting for the Celtics.
Kelly Olynyk was the story in his return to the Garden for the Heat as he scored 32 points on 12-of-15 shooting with six 3-pointer and seven rebounds.
The Celtics faced a nine-point hole and a Heat team missing three starters to injury as they came back to the floor following a timeout with 3:35 on the clock.
An Olynyk drive made it 87-76 with 2:42 left when Irving answered with a basket with 2:25 to go. The Celtics forced a turnover and Irving drove for a three-point play and 87-81 spread with 2:04 on the clock.
Brown – who had been briefly yanked from the game after a bad defensive possession minutes early – then caused a stop and hit a 3-pointer to bring the Celtics within 87-84 with 1:31 to play.
Olynyk got the line for a free throws and a four-point game with 1:24 left before Irving cut the gap to two points with 1:15 remaining. A driving slam from Olynyk had the Heat back up four and Brown went to the line for a free throw and 90-87 difference with 53.8 second left.
Brown rebounded a long miss and the Celtics were down three with 37.1 ticks on the clock.
Down three entering the fourth quarter after leading by as many as 12 in the first half, the Celtics went down 68-60 on Olynyk’s fourth 3-pointer of the game with 9:54 left in the game. Olynyk’s fifth 3-pointer made it an 11-point game when Tatum answered for a 71-62 game.
Wayne Ellington stretched the Heat lead to 12 with a 3-pointer when Irving hit two free throws. Al Horford then picked up his fifth and sixth fouls of the night within five seconds of each other and headed to the bench for the evening with 8:12 to go and the Celtics down 10.
Jordan Mickey’s drive made 12-point game when Smart came back with his fourth 3-pointer of the night and a 76-69 game into a timeout with 6:09 on the clock. An Ellington 3-pointer stretched the deficit back to 10 when Irving hit a corner 3-pointer for a 79-72 game with 5:34 to go.
Smart’s fifth 3-pointer got Boston within four when the Heat shot back with six straight behind Olynyk’s sixth 3-pointer. A Tatum free throw then brought the Celtics within 85-76 into a timeout with 3:35 to go.
The Celtics had a hard time shaking the woefully undermanned Heat in the first half as they lead 44-36 at the break. Boston jumped out to a 12-point lead midway through the second quarter on a Guerschon Yabusele 3-pointer and Tatum driving slam, but old friends Mickey and Olynyk helped keep things relatively close as part of a makeshift rotation with the Heat missing Goran Dragic (elbow), Hassan Whiteside (knee) and Justise Winslow (knee).
Things then really went south in the third quarter as the Celtics missed nine of their first 11 shots, including seven straight 3-pointers, and were outscored 22-7 to start the half on their way to a 58-51 deficit with 3:49 left in the third.
It was a nine-point gap when Smart hit Boston’s first 3-pointer in nine attempts in the quarter to bring the Celtics within 62-56 with 2:32 on the clock. A second straight Smart 3-pointer then made it 62-59 heading to the fourth.