Do the Heat have counterpunch after deflating Game 3 loss to Celtics?

MIAMI — Less than three minutes into Saturday’s second quarter, the Miami Heat already trailed by 17 factors and starved for any offensive rhythm.

Caleb Martin — the unlikely hero of final yr’s East Conference Finals — discovered himself with the ball in the nook and an open have a look at a 3-point shot.

Martin flinched, dribbled left and regarded like he was about to cross the ball again to Tyler Herro, however he determined to preserve dribbling. By the time Martin reached the different aspect of the court docket and eventually let the ball go, his supposed goal, Jaime Jaquez Jr., left the nook to run towards the hoop.

Martin’s cross fell helplessly at the toes of Duncan Robinson, who was sitting on the Heat bench.

If one play summed up the Heat’s 104-84 Game 3 loss to the Celtics, that was it.

A number of days after eighth-seeded Miami made a franchise playoff-record 23 3-pointers on 43 makes an attempt with decided conviction to beat Boston at its personal sport, the Heat performed all out of kinds and regarded like a crew badly lacking its top-two help leaders in Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier.

The Celtics had so much to do with that. Coach Joe Mazzulla dialed up extra stress on Miami’s main ball distributors to pace up the Heat’s offense. But there have been nonetheless open appears akin to the one Martin handed on, which led Miami to play like the crew that obtained beat by 20 in the sequence opener.

“Honestly, we just made mistake after mistake on offense — not communicating, throwing the ball away, turnovers that shouldn’t happen in the playoffs,” mentioned Bam Adebayo, who led Miami with 20 factors, 9 rebounds and three assists on an evening the Heat trailed by as many as 29 factors and by no means lower the deficit under 18 in the second half.

“I don’t think we really brought that dog tonight like we did in Game 2, when we set the tone from the jump,” he continued. “Obviously, when you don’t have that type of dog mentality, you can get blown out by 20. Next time, I’m gonna yell at my teammates to shoot the ball.”

Martin, who scored 5 factors on solely 4 shot makes an attempt in 38 minutes Saturday, owned his finish of the unhealthy night time.

“There were some times I passed up (shots),” he mentioned. “I was trying to get the ball moving a little bit more, being a little bit less aggressive and letting it go. That’s on me. I’ve got to be aggressive.”

Herro, who had a career-high and crew highway playoff-record 14 assists in Game 2, had two assists and 4 turnovers and completed with 15 factors 5-of-16 taking pictures, together with a 3-of-9 mark from past the arc. Not solely did the Celtics tighten up their protection on the perimeter — they pressured Herro into taking 5 extra two-point photographs than he did in Game 2.

“I have to do a better job of creating and making the right decisions when I get into the paint. Same with Bam,” Herro mentioned .”Our guys simply have to shoot the ball. They are open. They have to let it journey and let it go.

“We don’t have a quote-unquote ‘point guard’ right now. But we have a bunch of guys that can get us into offense. So, I think that they’re gonna continue to try to bring that pressure so that we can kind of get sped up and make the decisions harder for us. I also feel like we can do a little bit of the same to them, kind of get into them, speed up the ball a little bit and kind of force them into mistakes.”

The downside Erik Spoelstra faces is he simply doesn’t have very many choices to flip to for offensive assist.

Butler, Miami’s main scorer since becoming a member of 5 seasons in the past, isn’t coming again anytime quickly. Rozier, who ranks second on the crew in shot makes an attempt since being acquired from the Hornets in late January, is week-to-week with a neck harm.

Duncan Robinson, Miami’s finest three-point shooter, is tormented by a again harm and performed just a bit over seven minutes with out a shot try off the bench in Game 3.

Kevin Love, who has swung Miami’s web ranking by minus-53.6 in 23 minutes of play, is a defensive legal responsibility on this sequence on pick-and-roll protection. He performed solely six minutes in Game 2 and noticed motion lower to 4 minutes on Saturday.

One factor the Heat can undoubtedly do, Adebayo mentioned, will not be permit the Celtics to get on the offensive glass and rating as many second-chance factors (17) as they did early on Saturday.

It was deflating.

“They were the more physical team,” Spoelstra mentioned. “They bodied us, bullied us on screens, got through stuff, distorted screens, everything — flattened us out once we got past that first six, seven, eight minutes of the game. You have to credit them for that; they’re the more physical team, the team with more physicality and force on both ends of the court.”

Spoelstra isn’t folding, although.

He’s been short-handed earlier than and led the eighth-seeded Heat to the NBA Finals a season in the past.

“We have enough to get the job done. We understand the challenge,” Spoelstra mentioned.

(*3*)

Monday, we’ll discover out if Spoelstra has one other counterpunch for Mazzulla.

(Photo of the Heat bench: Jim Rassol /USA Today)