MIAMI — Less than three minutes into Saturday’s second quarter, the Miami Heat already trailed by 17 points and lacked offensive rhythm.
Caleb Martin — the unlikely hero of last year’s Eastern Conference finals — found himself with the ball in the corner and an open look at a 3-point shot.
Martin flinched, dribbled to the left and looked like he was about to throw the ball back to Tyler Herro, but he decided to keep dribbling. As Martin reached the other side of the court and finally released the ball, his target, Jaime Jaquez Jr., left the corner to run toward the hoop.
Martin’s pass fell helplessly to the feet 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, it was this one.
Days after eighth-seeded Miami set a franchise playoff record with 23 3-pointers on 43 attempts with determined conviction to beat Boston in its own game, the Heat played in a bad mood and looked like to a team that was seriously missing its top-two finish. assisting executives Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier.
The Celtics have a lot to do with it. Coach Joe Mazzulla put more pressure on Miami’s key ball distributors to speed up the Heat’s offense. But there were still open looks like the one Martin passed on, leading Miami to play like the team that got beaten by 20 in the series opener.
“Honestly, we made mistake after mistake on offense — not communicating, throwing the ball, turnovers that shouldn’t happen in the playoffs,” said Bam Adebayo, who led Miami with 20 points, nine rebounds and three assists. decisive in one evening. the Heat trailed by 29 points and never cut the deficit below 18 in the second half.
“I don’t think we really brought that dog in tonight like we did in Game 2, when we set the tone from the jump,” he continued. “Obviously, when you don’t have that kind of dog mentality, you can get blown up at 20. Next time I’ll yell at my teammates to shoot the ball.”
Martin, who scored five points on just four shot attempts in 38 minutes Saturday, acknowledged his poor end to the night.
“There were times I missed (shots),” he said. “I was trying to move the ball a little more, be a little less aggressive and let it go. It’s for me. I have to be aggressive.
Herro, who had a career-high and team-high road playoff record with 14 assists in Game 2, had two assists and four turnovers and finished with 15 points on 5-of-16 shooting, including a 3-of-9 mark from beyond the arc. . Not only did the Celtics tighten up their coverage on the perimeter, but they forced Herro into five more two-point shots than in Game 2.
“I need to do a better job creating and making the right decisions when I get into painting. Same with Bam,” Herro said. “Our guys just have to shoot the ball. They are open. They need to let it go and let it go.
“We do not have a quote-unquote “leader” at the moment. But we have a group of guys that can carry us on offense. So, I think they’re going to continue to try to put that pressure on so that we can kind of speed it up and make the decisions harder for us. I also feel like we can do a little bit of the same thing with them, kind of get into them, rush the ball a little bit and force them to make mistakes.
The problem Erik Spoelstra faces is that he simply doesn’t have many options to turn to for offensive help.
Butler, Miami’s leading scorer since his arrival five seasons ago, won’t be back anytime soon. Rozier, who ranks second on the team in shot attempts since being acquired from the Hornets in late January, has been dealing with a neck injury every week.
Duncan Robinson, Miami’s leading three-point shooter, is dealing with a back injury and played just over seven minutes without a shot attempt from the bench in Game 3.
Kevin Love, who dropped Miami’s net rating to minus-53.6 in 23 minutes of play, is a defensive liability in this series when it comes to pick-and-roll defense. He played just six minutes in the second game and saw action dwindle to four minutes on Saturday.
One thing the Heat can definitely do, Adebayo said, is not allow the Celtics to get on the offensive glass and score as many second-chance points (17) as they did early Saturday.
It was deflating.
“They were the most physical team,” Spoelstra said. “They toughed us out, bullied us on screens, ran through stuff, blown screens, everything – flattened us once we got past the first six, seven, eight minutes of the game. They must be given credit for this; they are the more physical team, the team with more physicality and strength on both ends of the floor.
However, Spoelstra does not fold.
He’s been shorthanded before and led the eighth-seeded Heat to the NBA Finals a season ago.
“We have enough to get the job done. We understand the challenge,” Spoelstra said.
“We will work to get a better version of ourselves Monday night, which we are fully capable of. We have competitors. Nobody feels comfortable in our locker room, but we also respect Boston, what they are capable of. We know how connected we have to be, have an incredible willingness to be disciplined and make the right play on both ends.
On Monday, we’ll find out if Spoelstra has another counter move for Mazzulla.
(Heat bench photo: Jim Rassol /USA Today)