MIAMI – Dwyane Wade knew his regular-season numbers against Boston were lacking.
He also knew that wouldn’t matter in the playoffs.
And Game 1 — which seemed more like Round 1 — of what’s already an emotionally charged series went to Wade and the Miami Heat.
Wade scored 38 points on 14 of 21 shooting, James Jones set a Miami postseason record with 25 points off the bench, and the Heat beat the Celtics 99-90 on Sunday to open their Eastern Conference semifinal series.
“It’s a big game. It’s Game 1, at home,” Wade said. “You’ve got to take care of home court. These guys expect this from me. I wasn’t giving it to them in the regular season versus them and I wanted to come out today and be a leader.”
LeBron James finished with 22 points, six rebounds and five assists for Miami, which led by as many as 19 before a fiery finish that saw plenty of players jawing at each other — more than that in some cases. Paul Pierce was ejected with 7 minutes left, after picking up two technicals in skirmishes with Wade and Jones within a span of 59 seconds.
Ray Allen scored 25 points for Boston, which lost
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