Winderman’s view: Heat 129, Celtics 121

Observations and other notes of interest from Tuesday night’s 129-121 victory over the Boston Celtics at TD Garden:

— This one answered so many questions.

— First, whether this team could win a must-win game?

— Check.

— Second, whether the Heat could find a way without Jimmy Butler.

— Check again, with Butler missing the second half after being poked in the eye in the second quarter.

— Third, what Bam Adebayo would look like as leading man.

— Like he looked in the second half. Check.

— And if there was enough in support.

— Check from Duncan Robinson.

— Check from Goran Dragic.

— And check from Tyler Herro.

— So make it 10 victories in the Heat’s last 13 games.

— Tough enough?

— You bet.

— While the Celtics rolled Tristan Thompson into their starting lineup, the Heat again rolled out the starting five of Butler, Adebayo, Trevor Ariza, Robinson and Kendrick Nunn.

— With the start, Adebayo tied Steve Smith for 20th place on the Heat’s all-time list, with 181 career regular-season starts with the team.

— The Celtics lost then briefly lost Kemba Walker 1:47 in with a shoulder injury.

— He returned with 6:25 left in the first.

— And kept going from there.

— Nunn then was forced to the bench with 5:47 left in the opening period with his second foul.

— That had Dragic entering.

— Followed shortly thereafter by Dewayne Dedmon.

— Dedmon’s second defensive rebound was the 1,800th of his career.

— Then Herro.

— With Andre Iguodala rounding out the primary nine.

— The game briefly was stopped in the second period to see if Boston had six players on the court.

— They did not.

— That was shortly after Celtics coach Brad Stevens was called for technical foul for arguing an and-one Adebayo opportunity.

— Before the game, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra addressed his team’s recent uneven defense.

— “Teams have just been able to attack us in different ways and get us on our heels,” he noted.

— He added, “We feel that we’re better than we have been and it’s going to take just a commitment and recalibration. And it’s also a tough league. So these games have great meaning to them, and competition raises and you have to adapt to that competition.”

— But he also cited gains.

— “We’ve done a lot of things much better, significantly better than we were doing several weeks ago. So that’s an area we feel we need to improve and we can improve.”

— Asked pregame if he had an update on the sore right knee that has kept Victor Oladipo out the past 17 games, Spoelstra responded with only two words, “I don’t.”

— Oladipo did not make the trip.

— Before the game, Stevens addressed losing All-Star forward Jaylen Brown to season-ending wrist surgery.

— “We’ve always had hope that at the end we would be full,” he said. “That was taken away this weekend. And so now it is truly time to look at it and say, ‘OK, this is how we think we’d have to do it to have our best chance.’ "

— Of what comes next, Stevens said, “We’ll see where we land and we’ll see what happens. But we have enough in the room to be a nuisance.”

— Steven said among the most dramatic impacts of Brown’s absence is Jayson Tatum having to guard up, sometimes covering power forwards.

— “We’re going to have to make small tweaks to reinvent ourselves on the fly a little bit,” Stevens said. “Because [Brown’s] a critical part of what we were doing.”

— He added, “It’s not an ideal time to do that.”

— Nunn’s first 3-point attempt was the 700th of his career.

— Nunn’s first 3-pointer tied Dion Waiters for 22nd on the Heat’s all-time list.

— Adebayo’s fifth basket eclipsed his previous season high of 400, set last season.

— Adebayo extended his career-best streak to 54 consecutive games scoring in double figures.

— Robinson made it 100 career games scoring in double digits.