Takeaways from Heat’s Game 4 loss to Celtics in East finals

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 116-99 loss to the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night at Kaseya Center in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals. The eighth-seeded Heat now holds a 3-1 lead over the second-seeded Celtics in the best-of-7 series, with Game 5 on Thursday in Boston (8:30 p.m., TNT):

The Heat earned a 3-0 lead in the series behind a huge edge in three-point shooting, but the Celtics avoided the sweep by flipping the script.

Through the first three games of the East finals, the Heat shot a ridiculously efficient 47.8 percent on threes and the Celtics shot just 29.2 percent from beyond the arc.

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As a result, Miami outscored Boston 132-93 from three-point range in the first three games of the series.

But the Celtics got hot in Game 4 and won behind their own huge three-point edge.

Boston shot 18 of 45 (40 percent) from three-point range to outscore Miami 54-24 from beyond the arc on Tuesday. The Heat shot just 8 of 32 (25 percent) on threes.

The Celtics caught fire in a game-changing third quarter, shooting 7 of 12 (58.3 percent) from three-point range to outscore the Heat 38-23 in the period. Miami actually led by nine points with 10:39 left in the third quarter, but the Celtics outscored the Heat 36-18 over the final 10:39 to enter the fourth quarter ahead by nine.

“There wasn’t a lot of flow to the offense, and then they capitalized on that,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Miami’s ugly third quarter. “Getting out in transition, which they have been trying to do. Speed this thing up a little bit and then they knock down some threes. And they got the two-point lead just like that.”

The Celtics’ lead grew to as large as 18 points in the fourth quarter.

“They are not going to shoot that poorly that many times in a row, particularly if they are getting some open ones,” Spoelstra said. “They got a lot of clean ones tonight, so I’ll have to see what kind of efforts and breakdowns we had with that.”

Of the Heat’s three-point shooting struggles on Tuesday, Spoelstra said: “I think it’s probably pretty easy to keep our three-point shooting down. We just weren’t doing things with a lot of oomph to it offensively.”

The Celtics were led by Jayson Tatum, who scored a game-high 33 points on 14-of-22 shooting from the field and 4-of-9 shooting on threes while also grabbing 11 rebounds and dishing out seven assists. After not making a fourth-quarter field goal in the first three games of the series, Tatum scored 11 points in Tuesday’s fourth quarter.

Grant Williams added 14 points on 4-of-6 shooting from deep off the Celtics’ bench.

And Marcus Smart, Derrick White and Al Horford each hit three threes for the Celtics.

Meanwhile, Caleb Martin and Kevin Love combined to shoot 4 of 9 from three-point range in Game 4. But the rest of the Heat’s roster shot just 4 of 23 (17.4 percent) on threes in the loss.

This looked more like the Celtics team that closed the regular season with the second-most made threes in the NBA behind only the Golden State Warriors. Boston recorded the league’s sixth-best team three-point percentage (37.7 percent) on the second-most attempts (42.6 per game) this regular season.

The Celtics improved 37-2 this season when they shoot 40 percent or better from three-point range. Boston is 29-31 when it shoots under 40 percent from deep.

“That’s who they have been all season long,” Spoelstra said after the Celtics’ efficient night from three-point range in Game 4. “So it takes extraordinary efforts and focus and a commitment to be in the right spot and to get them off the line, but also make those second, third, fourth, fifth efforts. Whatever is necessary to get it done. For the most part on those threes, I think they were one probably one- or two-effort plays.

Meanwhile, the Heat looked more like the team that finished the regular season with the NBA’s fourth-worst team three-point percentage (34.4 percent).

Tuesday marked the Heat’s first home loss of this year’s playoffs, falling to 6-1 at Kaseya Center.

“We just missed shots that we typically were making,” Martin said. “Sometimes it’s just how the game goes. You miss a couple, they go on a run and they hit a couple shots, and it’s like the gates kind of open for them and the basket got a little wider for guys. Sometimes it just happens.”

It was a weird game for the Heat’s leading duo of Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.

It took Butler a while to get going and Adebayo really never got going on Tuesday.

Butler was off for a large chunk of the game, starting 3 of 10 from the field as the Celtics made their big run in the third quarter to take control of the game.

But Butler started to find his way midway through the third quarter, scoring 15 points over the final 6:11 of the period. He scored 15 of the Heat’s final 18 points of the quarter.

That was Butler’s best stretch of the night, as he totaled just five points on 1-of-5 shooting from the field in the fourth quarter.

Butler still managed to finish with a team-high 29 points on 9-of-21 shooting from the field, 1-of-4 shooting on threes and 10-of-12 shooting from the foul line, nine rebounds and five assists.

But Adebayo was limited to just 10 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field, five rebounds and zero assists to four turnovers. It marked his lowest-scoring game of the playoffs.

“I had four turnovers,” Adebayo said. “I only shot the ball seven times. I missed two free throws back to back. So for me, man, next game I’ve got to be better.”

The Celtics’ All-Star duo of Jaylen Brown and Tatum outscored Adebayo and Butler 50-39.

Even in the loss, Martin continued to open eyes this postseason.

Martin turned in another impressive playoff performance on Tuesday, finishing with 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field and 2-of-5 shooting from three-point range, four rebounds and one assist in 35 minutes off the bench.

Martin’s first half in Game 4 was perfect, scoring 14 points on 6-of-6 shooting from the field and 2-of-2 shooting on threes in the first two quarters. He cooled off in the second half.

Martin made it clear early in the series that he wanted to make the Celtics pay for helping off of him. He has done exactly that, shooting 12 of 26 (46.2 percent) from three-point range in the East finals.

In this year’s playoffs, Martin is shooting 29 of 70 (41.4 percent) from beyond the arc.

Love was back in the Heat’s starting lineup after exiting Sunday’s Game 3 win early because of a left leg injury.

Love didn’t play many minutes, but he started each half to finish Tuesday’s loss with six points on 2-of-6 shooting from the field and 2-of-4 shooting on threes, four rebounds and one steal in 12 minutes.

Tuesday marked the 12th time in the last 13 playoff games that the Heat has opened with the Gabe Vincent-Max Strus-Butler-Love-Adebayo combination. The only time Miami didn’t start this lineup during that stretch was when Butler missed Game 2 of the second round against the New York Knicks because of a sprained ankle.

The Heat’s preferred playoff starting unit with Love has been a big positive this postseason, as the group entered Tuesday outscoring opponents by 8.8 points per 100 possessions in 163 minutes together during this year’s playoffs

But it wasn’t a positive in Game 4, as the lineup was outscored by five points in 12 minutes together.

The Heat fell to 10-2 in the playoffs when using the Vincent-Strus-Butler-Love-Adebayo starting lineup.

Vincent left Game 4 briefly after turning his left ankle in the fourth quarter, but he was able to return to the game. After the loss, Vincent said he went back to the locker room to have his ankle re-taped and did not feel any discomfort.

The Heat wasted its first of three opportunities to clinch a trip to the NBA Finals.

By building a 3-0 lead in the series, the Heat earned three chances to close it out. That’s now down to two opportunities after Tuesday’s Game 4 loss.

“We have great respect for Boston, what they are capable of,” Spoelstra said. “Our guys really want this. But Boston has something to say about it as well, just like we do. You know, sometimes things don’t go exactly as planned. A lot of what we’ve done this year has been the hard way.”

No NBA team has ever rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win a best-of-7 series. But the Celtics do have one thing working in their favor — two of the final three games are in Boston.

Three teams have come back from a 3-0 series deficit to force a Game 7. It last happened in the 2003 playoffs, when the Portland Trail Blazers dropped the first three games of a first-round series against the Dallas Mavericks before forcing a Game 7 that the Mavericks won.

“No,” Butler said when asked if he’s concerned about the momentum shifting to Boston’s side after Tuesday’s result. “If anything, it will build momentum for us, knowing that we have to play with a lot more energy. We’ve got to play like our backs are against the wall. But I think all year long, we’ve been better when we’ve had to do things the hard way.”

The Heat is one win away from clinching its seventh NBA Finals appearance in franchise history and sixth NBA Finals appearance in the last 13 seasons.

The Heat is also one win away from becoming just the second No. 8 seed in league history to advance to the NBA Finals. The Knicks are the only other team to pull that off as an eighth seed before losing to the San Antonio Spurs in the championship series in 1999 after a lockout-shortened regular season.

A No. 8 seed has never won an NBA title.

Meanwhile, the Denver Nuggets already clinched a spot in the NBA Finals and are getting some time off after completed the 4-0 sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals on Monday night.

Game 1 of the NBA Finals is June 1.

This story was originally published May 24, 2023 12:12 AM.