Jayson Tatum delivers triple-double, Jaylen Brown pours in 43 points as Celtics beat Heat

Zack Cox, Boston Herald on Apr 1, 2026

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The Celtics’ superstar duo showed out Wednesday night in Miami.

Jayson Tatum recorded his first triple-double (25 points, 18 rebounds, 11 assists, two steals) since his return from Achilles surgery less than a month earlier, and Jaylen Brown poured in 43 points on 17-of-29 shooting as Boston blew out the Heat, 147-129, at the Kaseya Center.

The Celtics set a new franchise record by scoring 53 first-quarter points — including 20 by Brown — and shot 21 for 48 from 3-point range in the win. Role players Sam Hauser (23 points), Payton Pritchard (14), Luka Garza (12) and Baylor Scheierman (8) combined for 57 points on 13-of-20 shooting from deep to complement the headline-grabbing nights from Tatum and Brown.

The win capped a 4-0 season sweep for the Celtics over the Heat, with more installments potentially looming in the opening round of the NBA playoffs.

Miami is one of five teams tightly packed in the bottom half of the Eastern Conference playoff picture. Just three games separated the No. 5 seed from 10th entering Wednesday’s action. The Celtics (51-25) — on pace to land the No. 2 seed barring a late slide or New York Knicks surge — will likely face the winner of the 7 vs. 8 play-in game.

After enduring what he called “one of (his) worst games of the season” in Monday’s loss to Atlanta, Brown came out scorching in South Beach. He scored on Boston’s first five possessions — mainly on well-worked drives past multiple Heat defenders — to set the tone for his team’s historic opening quarter.

Hauser and Tatum drained 3-pointers shortly thereafter, which Brown followed with a nifty up-and-under layup. After a Tatum miss, the Celtics’ next four trips went: Hauser 3, Scheierman 3, Garza floater, Pritchard 3.

With 4:30 remaining in the first quarter, Boston had racked up 29 points on 11-of-13 shooting — and somehow trailed, 30-29.

Miami kept pace early thanks to a similarly efficient start by Bam Adebayo (eight points in the first 98 seconds) and some undisciplined Celtics defense, which gifted the Heat 10 trips to the foul line in the opening eight minutes.

But head coach Erik Spoelstra’s offense tailed off late in the first, and the Celtics just kept scoring.

Two more Hauser 3-pointers ignited a 27-3 Boston run that consumed the rest of the first quarter and stretched into the second. By the time the horn sounded, Brown had piled up 20 points, and Hauser had tallied 17 on perfect 6-for-6 shooting, including 5-for-5 shooting from beyond the arc. Together, they outscored the entire Heat team, which found itself down by 20 despite scoring an otherwise respectable 33 first-quarter points.

The Celtics went 11 for 15 from 3-point range in the frame, hitting more 3s than Miami had total made field goals (9 for 24). Their 53 points were two shy of the NBA record for first-quarter scoring set by the 2022-23 Golden State Warriors (55 vs. Portland).

Hauser, who returned to the starting lineup after coming off the bench Monday for the first time since Jan. 1, also blocked an Adebayo runner and had one of Boston’s two first-quarter steals. The other, by Scheierman, led to a fast-break reverse dunk by Brown.

“I thought in the beginning of the game, we were sloppy in our body positioning, we were sloppy in discipline and our game plan execution,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla told ESPN’s Doris Burke during an in-game interview. “I thought once we were able to pick that up, our defense was able to lead to our offense.”

Tatum, who scored just three of his team’s first 53 points, took the reins of Boston’s offense in the second quarter, notching 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting. He also was the Celtics’ most effective rebounder. It took Tatum just 13 minutes to reach double-double territory, and he accounted for more than 40% of the Celtics’ first-half boards.

Derrick White didn’t attempt a shot until the final minute of the first half, but he helped Boston close with an 8-0 run by converting back-to-back layups, lofting a pass to Brown for a fast-break alley-oop and then sprinting the length of the court to deny a Pelle Larsson chance at the buzzer. Halftime score: Celtics 80, Heat 57.

Brown exploded again for 12 points in five minutes midway through the third quarter, giving him 36 for the game and pushing Boston past the 100-point plateau with nearly 1 1/2 quarters still to play. The Celtics’ bench followed with another scoring binge: two 3s by Pritchard, one by Garza and a Scheierman floater, all in a five-possession span, to make it 112-90 with 2:15 remaining in the third.

But Miami responded by burying four consecutive 3-pointers — of the team-record 11 total they made in the quarter — to cut Boston’s lead, which peaked at 27 points, to 10 heading into the fourth.

The Celtics were able to withstand that push, however. Hauser opened the final quarter with two midrange jumpers, with Tatum assisting on the second to secure his first triple-double since Feb. 20, 2025 (15-11-10 vs. Philadelphia). Tatum drew a foul on the next possession and followed it up with a 3-pointer that stretched the lead back to 16. It hit 21 later in the quarter as Boston pulled away.