Nikola Vucevic, Payton Pritchard help fuel Celtics' comeback in win over Heat

Zack Cox, Boston Herald on Feb 6, 2026

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BOSTON — The Celtics overcame a dreadful offensive first half and a 22-point Heat lead to secure their fifth straight win Friday night.

Derrick White’s corner 3-pointer with 1:31 remaining put Boston ahead for good in a 98-96 thriller over Miami at TD Garden.

Veteran newcomer Nikola Vucevic, acquired from Chicago earlier in the week for Anfernee Simons, recorded a double-double off the bench in his Celtics debut, finishing with 11 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and two steals in 28 minutes.

Payton Pritchard, pushed from starter to sixth man after Simons’ exit, topped 20 points for the third straight game, scoring 19 of his 24 in the second half to help fuel Boston’s comeback. White shot 6 for 20 from the floor but scored 21 points and blocked four shots, including one in the final minute that would have tied the game.

Jaylen Brown led all scorers with 29 points on 11-of-25 shooting, offsetting his seven turnovers.

Up next for the 34-18 Celtics: a marquee matinee matchup against the New York Knicks on Super Bowl Sunday (12:30 p.m.).

The Celtics opened with a double-big lineup for the second straight game, sending out Neemias Queta and Luka Garza alongside White, Brown and Sam Hauser.

Previous Celtics teams heavily relied on multi-center units — last season’s played more than 1,200 minutes with two of Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford, Luke Kornet and Queta on the floor — but they’ve been almost entirely absent from Joe Mazzulla’s game plans this season. Before Queta and Garza started together in Wednesday’s road romp over Houston, they’d shared the floor for just three total minutes. Garza had played an additional two minutes with rookie third-stringer Amari Williams.

The Queta-Garza pairing was highly effective against the Rockets, but much less so Friday night. After Boston quickly fell behind 9-2, Mazzulla lifted both bigs and inserted Vucevic and Pritchard, who’s come off the bench in each game since Simons’ departure.

Vucevic entered to a loud ovation from the Garden crowd and notched a steal, two offensive rebounds, two assists and a put-back in his first seven-minute shift. But Bam Adebayo and the Heat frequently targeted the 35-year-old on defense as they built a 25-6 lead.

At the other end, Brown and White shot a combined 1 for 11 from the field in the first quarter, and Boston started 1 for 21 from 3-point range, with Baylor Scheierman providing the lone make off a feed from Vucevic. The Celtics trailed 29-15 after their lowest-scoring opening period of the season.

Down 42-22 early in the second quarter, Boston moved away from the 3-ball and leaned on interior aggressiveness from Brown. That shift gave the Celtics a bit of offensive momentum — Brown threw down a driving dunk out of a timeout, then scored on five of the next six possessions — but had little impact on the score line.

Miami’s lead never dropped below 17 points in the second quarter and was back to 21 by halftime, 59-38. At the half, Brown had 17 points, and no other Celtic had more than five. The veteran quartet of Brown, White, Pritchard and Hauser had attempted 16 3s and made none.

But just as they did in the teams’ previous meeting, when 39 points from Simons helped Boston erase a 19-point deficit in a Jan. 15 win, the Celtics roared back in the second half.

The Celtics’ Queta-Garza grouping opened the second half with a 6-0 run, and Brown finally ended Boston’s 3-point drought by drilling one at the 7:58 mark of the third quarter. That bucket seemed to unlock the rest of the Celtics’ offense.

Pritchard and White canned back-to-back 3s, sandwiched around a White steal, to cut the Heat’s lead to 12. Another Pritchard triple after a Miami timeout, followed by an and-one scoop shot in the lane, made it a six-point game.

Boston then began feeding the new guy. Vucevic scored eight points in just over two minutes — six on layups, two on free throws he earned by drawing an offensive foul away from the ball — to get the Celtics to within one. A corner 3 from White closed the gap, tying the game at 72-72 with 40 seconds to play in the third.

The Celtics outscored the Heat 36-15 in the quarter, then built a five-point lead early in the fourth. Though Brown sparked the comeback, he watched much of it from the bench. Boston was plus-21 with Brown off the floor in the second half, including a 30-7 run.

Pritchard was the Celtics’ offensive engine during that stretch, giving them the same influx of off-the-bench scoring that Simons did three weeks earlier. After a five-point first half, he scored nine in the third quarter and 10 more in the fourth.

White drew a three-shot foul and made all three free throws to put the Celtics ahead 91-89 with 4:49 remaining, then hit a 3-pointer from the same spot to make it 98-96 with 1:31 to play. Brown converted two tough bank shots in the final minutes, but his jumper in the lane that might have iced the game with 40 seconds to play was waved off for an offensive foul.