By GREG MENGELT
Langford made four of his eight shot attempts, including going 2 for 5 from behind the 3-point line, and made both of his free throw attempts in the victory. He also had two rebounds and an assists and was plus-25 in his 27 minutes off the Celtics’ bench. It was his first double figure scoring night of the season.
After going scoreless in the first quarter, Langford drained a 24-foot 3-pointer 3 minutes into the second period. One minute later, Langford pulled the Celtics to within 29-28 with an offensive rebound putback dunk with 8:02 to go before halftime.
In the third, Langford connected on another 3 from the left corner with 1:10 remaining to put Boston ahead 69-56. With the game well in hand in the fourth quarter, the New Albany graduate made a layup to give his team a 92-66 lead.
A night after beating Orlando, the Celtics (4-5) had six players score in double figures, led by Jaylen Brown’s 17. Langford, Dennis Schroeder and Aaron Nesmith combined for 39 points to help the Boston bench outscore Miami’s 45-20.
“The bench scoring is what brought it home for us,” Celtics first-year coach Ime Udoka said. “Our bench really outplayed theirs. … Romeo and Aaron are playing really well.”
Jimmy Butler paced Miami, which suffered just its second loss of the season, with 20 points. Duncan Robinson added 16. All 17 of Robinson’s shots were 3-point attempts. The Heat, who entered the game with the league’s second-ranked offense, shot just 34.6 percent from the floor. Previous to Thursday’s loss, the Heat’s season low in points came in a 102-91 loss to Indiana on Oct. 23.
Langford and the Celtics have a night off before going to Dallas for their third straight road game.
