Heat halt streaking Celtics

— -- MIAMI -- Perhaps it was a case of the always-powerful South Beach flu.

Or maybe Kyrie Irving was due for a rough night after a stellar 47-point performance Monday.

What is certain is the Celtics' 16-game win streak is over, with Boston falling victim to the Heat, 104-98, on Wednesday night in arguably Miami's most complete performance of the season.

Irving, whose Celtics hadn't lost a game since starting the season 0-2, finished with 23 points on 11-of-22 shooting, while rookie Jayson Tatum added 18. Heat guard? Dion Waiters hit a pair of 3-pointers in the final minutes to finish with 26, while Goran Dragic led Miami with 27.

The Heat led by as many as 18 points in the first half and went into halftime leading 54-41, with Dragic having scored 20.

The Celtics struggled with their efficiency in the first half, shooting 33.3 percent from the field and scoring just three points off 10 Miami first-half turnovers.

The Celtics' bench was the most glaring problem in the opening half, with Marcus Morris, Marcus Smart and Terry Rozier combining to shoot 3-of-15 in 36 combined minutes.

In the second half, though, the Celtics were hoping to do what they had been doing throughout the season: recover from a rough start.

Heading into Wednesday night's game, the streaking Celtics had been making their wins fairly stressful. In eight of the 16 games, Boston trailed in the fourth quarter. Against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Nov. 3, the Celtics trailed by 18 in the third quarter before Irving put on a show down the stretch for that win.

Boston does its best work in the second half. The team is third overall in the NBA in third-quarter plus-minus and second in the league in fourth-quarter points allowed.

But whether it was the opponent, the Miami nightlife, that holiday travel or just a bad night, the Celtics weren't able to call upon that third-quarter magic at AmericanAirlines Arena.

The Heat managed to maintain a double-digit cushion in Wednesday's third quarter as the Celtics' offense stalled, resulting in a lot of isolation situations late in the shot clock.

Irving scored just two of his team's 22 points in the third quarter, as Boston finished the frame down 16.?

The fourth quarter was much more to the Celtics' liking.

They started aggressively in the fourth -- with Irving scoring two buckets early -- and were in the bonus with nine minutes left in the period. With three minutes remaining, Boston was within a point, 91-90, behind a pair of 3s from Tatum.?

That's when Waiters attempted to hold off the Celtics on his own. The Heat guard hit a critical 3-pointer -- one that bounced off the top of the backboard before falling through -- to put Miami back up by four. He followed that with a step-back 3 in the corner -- no backboard necessary this time -- to extend the lead to 97-90.

Waiters followed with an air ball, but with the help of a Hassan Whiteside tip-in with 1:10 remaining, the Heat stopped the Celtics' win streak and maybe gave themselves a springboard win.

The Celtics, meanwhile, were reminded what losing feels like for the first time in 35 days.