Tuesday, 29 May 2012:

LeBron James scored 32 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, and Dwyane Wade scored 10 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter as the Miami Heat beat the Boston Celtics 93-79 on Monday in game one of the NBA Eastern Conference finals.

Shane Battier, playing in the conference finals for the first time, scored 10 points and had 10 rebounds for the Heat, who wasted an early 11-point first-half lead before running away to break a halftime deadlock. Miami out-rebounded the Celtics 48-33 and blocked 11 Boston shots.

Kevin Garnett scored 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for Boston, who received 16 points, nine rebounds and seven assists from Rajon Rondo and 12 points from Paul Pierce.

In the end, it went down as merely a one-quarter lapse for Miami.

Another technical foul, this one on Rondo, came in the third quarter, likely born from frustration as the Heat started to roll again.

With the game tied at 50-50, Rondo missed three shots in a 31-second span early in the third, the last of those getting blocked by Battier - who hit a three-pointer 11 seconds later.

It started a 9-2 Miami burst, including a touchdown pass from Wade to James - Wade grabbed the rebound of a miss by Pierce, spun and delivered a 90-foot pass to the reigning MVP - for an easy score.

Game two is on Wednesday night in Miami.

It's the third straight year the Heat and Celtics have met in the playoffs.

While both sides would say there's a long way to go in the best-of-seven series, game one winners have a decided edge - the conference final being no exception.

In the most recent 10 post-seasons, teams with 1-0 leads have advanced 15 out of 20 times. One of the five instances of a team rallying from a one-game deficit was last year, when Miami ousted Chicago in five games.

AAP