MIAMI — The Miami Heat came into this first-round playoff series without Jimmy Butler, Terry Rozier or Josh Richardson, and with Duncan Robinson severely limited by a back injury.
It’s only fitting the team might take the floor facing elimination Wednesday with the difficulty factor turned up another notch.
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Rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr., pressed into the starting lineup in these playoffs because of the injury to Butler, sat out the fourth quarter of Monday’s Game 4 loss after he said felt “something give” in his right hip going up for a rebound early in the third quarter.
“Tried to get back in there, gave it everything I had,” said Jaquez, who has been Miami’s third-leading scorer in this series (12.8 points per game) and played the fourth-most minutes (30.6). “I’ve never had an injury or been hurt up here before.”
The odds Miami can come back in this series are minuscule as it is. Since stealing Game 2 on the Boston Celtics’ home floor on the heels of a franchise playoff-record 23 3-pointers and a career-high 14 assists from Tyler Herro, the Heat have maintained a lead for all of 56 seconds in back-to-back blowout losses at home.
Boston has completely shut down Miami’s perimeter game, limiting the Heat to nine 3s in each of the last two games and forcing Herro into mistakes. Herro, Miami’s de facto point guard, has had more turnovers (nine) than assists (six) and he’s made only 13 of his last 33 field goal attempts in his last two games.
Boston’s excellent work on defense has basically rendered Miami’s defensive effort meaningless. The Celtics were held to 104 and 102 points and still managed to beat the Heat by 20 and 14 points in the last two contests.
Boston shot 41.9 percent Monday and lost Kristaps Porzingis early to injury. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown combined to score 37 points but missed 20 of their 32 combined field goal attempts. Derrick White, though, went off for 38 points and made eight 3s to pace Boston.
“Our guys are battling,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I know it’s tough to recognize that if you see the score like this. But our guys are putting everything out there – everything. There’s not a lot left in the tank defensively. We do need to put points on the board. To hold this team to the low 100s is pretty significant the way they can shoot it and stretch you out.
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“I know in my heart we have a game in us. It’s there. It’s just a matter of the ball going in a few more times and it ignites and then it just keeps on going. We’ve proven we can win a bunch of different ways, but I think we have a game. I think we have an offensive game in us.”
The Celtics led by as many as 28 on Monday before the Heat trimmed it to 13 with about five minutes to go in the fourth quarter. That was the extent of the excitement as Miami shot 9-of-33 from 3-point range (27.3 percent) and turned it over 13 times (Herro was responsible for five).
Countermoves? Spoelstra doesn’t have any other available weapons. He’s deployed everyone he can. Delon Wright and Patty Mills played a combined 51 minutes and tallied 11 points together.
Robinson played three minutes and missed his only 3-point shot. Kevin Love went 0-for-2 from beyond the arc in seven minutes off the bench.
“I feel like if we sustain (our offense) when they make their push in the first quarter, I feel like we’ll be fine,” said Bam Adebayo, who led the Heat with 25 points, 17 rebounds and five assists in 42 minutes where he never let up.
“We’re going into the lion’s den. Everybody knows what’s at stake. It’s 3-1. Our backs are against the wall. You’ve got to go respond.”
Adebayo said Miami’s fans deserve better than what they’ve seen so far at home in this series. It’s hard, though, to imagine Miami mustering a way to get the series back to South Florida for Game 6.
The Heat are basically running on fumes and are almost out of bodies.
“We haven’t really given our crowd a game to really cheer for yet,” said Caleb Martin, who shot better Monday than he did in Game 3 and finished with 18 points and four 3s.
“That doesn’t sit right with any of us on this end.”
(Photo: Marta Lavandier/Associated Press)
