Postgame reaction: Celtics handle Heat

By Gary Dzen, Boston.com Staff

The Celtics beat the Miami Heat 85-82 this afternoon to move to 39-14 on the season. Assorted reaction from the locker rooms:

— Heat guard Dwyane Wade said Miami still has some maturing to do in order to catch a team like the Celtics.

“This is classic, typical bigger brothers,” said Wade, referring to the Celtics. “You’ve got to get over it. I’ve been through it before. LeBron’s been through it with the Pistons. You look down the line, everyone’s been through it. [Michael Jordan] went through it with the Pistons back in the day. You’ve got to get over the hump. We’re getting close but we’re not there yet.”

Wade struggled this afternoon, going 6 of 17 to finish with 16 points.

“It can happen anytime,” said Wade. “We’ve got plenty of time. It can happen in the playoffs. That’s when we’d like it to happen, anyways.”

Said Eddie House, “We had an opportunity to get a win. We know we can play with these guys, but we definitely have to get through them to accomplish what we are trying to do.”

— Rajon Rondo guarded LeBron James tonight at times, a circumstance that Doc Rivers said came up during the game.

“I thought Rondo just willed us the game,” said Rivers. “That wasn’t a set game plan for him to guard LeBron. We just wanted ball pressure and we talked about that at halftime, and Rondo took that upon himself to whoever was bringing the ball up. He was just going to guard and harass. And I thought that changed the game for us.

“Sometimes you go off the book, and today was clearly that. That matchup made no sense, honestly.”

Said Kendrick Perkins, “We know what Rondo is capable of doing, but he turned it up another notch. I’ve never seen anybody make LeBron turn his back to the basket. He really didn’t want to put it on the ground around him.”

— Heat coach Erik Spoelstra tried to downplay the significance of today’s game.

“I know everybody wanted to really overstate this game and make it probably bigger than it was,” said Spoelstra. We weren’t better than them today, you’ve got to give them credit. We’ve got another 28 games to continue to get better and move along in this process.”

— Glen Davis took his missed dunk in the first half in stride.

“I missed it,” said Davis. “I went up the wrong way, too. That was a classic one. I was laughing. I’m glad it happened because it kind of got me going in the game.”