Erik Spoelstra feels in his ‘heart’ that Heat has an offensive resurgence for Game 5 vs. Celtics

Tyler Herro talks how to get the Heat’s offense on the right track

It has been an up and down series for star Tyler Herro as while he excelled in Game 2 where he scored 24 points and recorded 12 assists, he did not have an explosive game Monday as he scored 19 points to go with four assists. With the absences of Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier, Herro and teammate Bam Adebayo have been given the task of leading this offense as the 24-year old guard said that the goal is to continue “to work for the best looks.”

“Just keep trying to generate good shots,” Herro said. “Watch the film and figure out ways to maneuver and manipulate the defense so that we can score. I feel like we generated some pretty decent looks and we just got to make shots. We have to shoot our open shots and be able to match the amount of open shots that they shoot. We’re not going to win shooting a bunch of twos, especially with how many threes they shoot. But just continuing to work for the best looks and then just being ready to shoot.”

Bam Adebayo on not backing down to the Celtics

As for Adebayo, he’s been having a quietly great series as he has scored over 20 points in all four games so far and Game 4 was no different as he finished with 25 points to go along with 17 rebounds. The double-double gives him his 31st in the playoffs, which ties LeBron James for the most in Heat history.

The team’s captain talked about a bunch of aspects about the game, including the frustration of the defense holding their ground while the offense falling flat. In Monday’s loss, the Heat shot 40.7 percent from the field and only made nine of 33 attempts from beyond the arch. Besides mentioning that the team started off poorly once again, he stood tall staying that Miami has to “keep working our offense.”

“Keep working our offense, and we got to keep making plays, shooting the ball,” Adebayo said. “We can live with the result, no matter if it goes in or not.”

Caleb Martin on the frustration of the solid defense, but sloppy offense

Another player that has been crucial for the Heat is Caleb Martin, who has been called by Spoelstra on many occasions the known “X Factor” on the team. He has had success against a team like Boston in the past, especially in the Eastern Conference Finals last season, but has also had an inconsistent series despite an 18 point performance Monday as he talked about the defensive scheme working.

“I think switches has been a good thing for us and obviously they got a lot of guys who could space the floor so it kind of makes some of that stuff difficult but they got guys that can do both,” Martin said. “But I think that we’ve seen right spots in our defensive scheme and like I said, I think we’re doing enough on the defensive end, we could be definitely doing more and patch up a couple of thing that lead easy baskets, but I think we’re doing enough on that end. I just think that we’re not executing on offense as much. So that’d be a point of emphasis.”

Martin believes the Heat need to get “some swag back” to the offense

What is it really going to take for the Heat’s offense to come back to life despite not having explosive players like Butler and Rozier? For Martin, it is significant for the team to not play as tight and rather with “confidence” and getting some of that “swag back.”

“Just play with confidence, we got to get some swag back I just think that we just were too tight, too hesitant, second guessing everything,” Martin said. “We’re just not just playing and letting it go and being confident and loving with the results until and typically when we play like that good things happen. So credit them, they’re shooting the ball really well and playing well. They are the number one team in the east for reason. We got to continue to find a way to make it tough on those guys. These are the type of teams you want to play.”

Spoelstra confident in his team, now down 3-1 in the series to Boston

Looking at where the Heat are, they are now down 3-1 in the series to the Celtics where they are in no man’s land. Only 13 other teams have came back down from that type of deficit, but Spoelstra believes his team is “very mentally tough” to get it done.

“Our guys have great competitive character. Our guys are battling,” 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 ton left in the tank in terms of defensively, we do need to put some points on the board. We’re not going to be able to hold this team to 70, I have great confidence in our defense. You know, but to hold his team to lower one hundreds is pretty significant the way they can shoot when they can stretch you out.”

“This a very mentally tough team and a team that embraces really tough challenges,” Spoelstra said to ClutchPoints. “And we’re also able to compartmentalize, you don’t want to think about the big picture. This is about to just go out there and do whatever we have to do to get that win and get back here to our fans here in Miami. Like I said, our team really wants to play well in front of our fans. So that’s the motivation to get this thing back here.”

Game 5 will be Wednesday night as Miami looks to save their season and bring the series back to Miami.