The Miami Heat beat the Boston Celtics 105-103 at the TD Bank Garden on Monday night to extend their NBA winning streak to a whopping 23 games.
Lebron James led the charge with 37 points for the Heat and scored the go-ahead basket with just over 1o seconds left to ensure the visitors left with the victory in front of a raucous crowd in Boston.
Miami now holds the second-longest winning streak in NBA history, surpassing the 2007-08 Houston Rockets who strung together 22 straight victories.
The Heat’s unbeaten run looked to be in serious jeopardy, as they were down 13 points with just over eight minutes to play in the fourth quarter but mounted a furious rally to record their first regular-season win in Boston in 11 tries.
Miami coach Erik Spoelstra was delighted with his team’s effort after the game and believes his players are ready to make history.
“It’s a special opportunity that we have with this group and you don’t want to take it for granted,” he said. “You want to treat every day as a special opportunity to be with this group, share these moments together, but more importantly to take a step closer to going after our goal.”
The Heat beat the Celtics despite a heroic effort from Jeff Green who poured in 43 points for the hosts in a losing effort. Boston was without the services of Kevin Garnett who was out with the flu and almost pulled out the win but Paul Pierce missed a three pointer with three seconds remaining.
Miami is now chasing the record set by the 1971-72 LA Lakers who won 33 games in a row and James realizes the Heat are in position to challenge that streak.
“It means a lot, I know the history of the game,” James stated. “To be sitting in second place right now… for us to be there and doing it the way we want to do it, it means a lot.”
The Miami Heat will now face the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night at the Quicken Loans Arena.