LeBron leads Heat over Celtics in Game 1

MIAMI -- The Heat wasted a big early lead. Then Miami took control again and simply ran away from the Boston Celtics.

And the NBA Finals now are three wins away for LeBron James and the Heat.

James had 32 points and 13 rebounds and Dwyane Wade scored 10 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter as the Heat beat the Celtics, 93-79, Monday night in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.

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

"We get a lot of the press, we get a lot of the headlines," James said. "But our teammates, they do everything to help us win ballgames."

Kevin Garnett had 23 points and 10 rebounds for Boston, which got 16 points, nine rebounds and seven assists from Rajon Rondo and 12 points from Paul Pierce.

Game 2 is Wednesday night in Miami.

James had 13 points in the first quarter -- two more than the entire Celtics roster -- and Miami ran out to a 21-11 lead after the opening period.

Garnett made three of his four shots in the quarter, but everyone else in Boston green was 2-for-16 from the floor.

The 11 points matched the lowest output by any team in the opening quarter this postseason. The other team to manage that few was San Antonio, which then dropped 32 on the Los Angeles Clippers in the second quarter of their game on May 19.

The Celtics' response was even better.

Boston scored 35 in the second quarter, erasing an 11-point deficit by scoring 27 points in the final 8:46 of the half to pull into a 46-all tie.

Rondo, Garnett and Pierce totaled 23 points in the quarter. The Celtics came back even though they were hit with three technical fouls in the second quarter and Ray Allen missed four first-half free throws -- matching his career-worst for an entire game.

In the end, it went down as merely a one-quarter lapse for Miami. "On the road, you can't have two quarters of lulls," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said.

"They came to play," Rivers said. "I mean Miami." He added, "We'll go back and see what we can do better. And we'll fix it."