The Miami Heat struggled to make any three-pointers Wednesday in their lopsided 93-80 loss to the Boston Celtics in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra wasn’t too shocked by his team’s final numbers.
Speaking to reporters after the game, Spoelstra got a chance to look at his team’s actual stats from behind the arc for perhaps the first time. He had a funny response.
“Ok yeah, that’s not a great three-point percentage,” Spoelstra said with a laugh. “We all felt it and we all saw it.
“What I’m looking at is are we getting shots in our wheelhouse. If we’re missing some of those shots, you can’t panic and just try to reinvent things.”
The Heat’s shooting performance was no laughing matter and was a main reason why they’re now on the brink of elimination.
The team shot a measly 15.6% (7-for-45) from three-point range, and had a field goal percentage of 31.9. With these numbers, it wasn’t a surprise that the Heat were held to 16 points in the third quarter and 19 in the first.
The Celtics, on the other hand, shot 30.3% on their three-point attempts (10-for-33) and 46.5% from the field. They outscored the Heat by a ratio of 2-to-1 in the third quarter to break the game open.
Game 5 wasn’t the first embarrassing performance from the Heat this series.
This was one of those rare shooting nights where nothing fell. The Heat, facing the end of their season, can’t afford to have another one as they head to Boston on Friday for Game 6 down 3-2 in the series.
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