Celtics' warning to the Heat prior to Game 4 sounds more like a plea

Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown sang similar refrains the morning of Boston's pivotal Game 4 in Miami. While their comments suggest all the Celtics need is one win to turn the tide in the series, they also sound like pleas for the Heat to end their misery.

Smart is shooting 35 percent from the field and averaging 9.3 points per game. Brown is shooting 37.7 percent and scoring 16.7 points per game.

Per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, people in the league believe several Boston starts never got over the team's firing of Ime Udoka, who was let go after it was discovered he was involved in an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the organization. Houston's hiring of Udoka last month further frustrated Celtics players.

"The locker room never got over Ime Udoka's dismissal as head coach," Wojnarowki said. "These players ... thought it was a wild overreaction." (h/t RealGM)

Celtics players' reportedly adamant defense of a coach who abused his power can be litigated elsewhere, but it's clear that Joe Mazzulla hasn't gotten the same type of buy-in from the Celtics that Udoka got.

Smart called the offense "random" in an article for The Athletic earlier this postseason. 

Mazzulla professed, "If you don't have a play, how are they going to guard you?" as if it were a brilliant coaching philosophy.

Analytics and sportsbooks favor the Heat after their Game 3 win, with ESPN's Basketball Power Index giving Miami a 74.9 percent chance at winning the series. The Ringer's odds for the Heat are at 86 percent.

Per OddsChecker, Miami is -1100 to win the series at DraftKings. The Ringer's playoff odds machine gives Miami a 45 percent chance of closing the series out in Game 4.

Down 3-0, Boston has no margin for error and a mountain of historical evidence to suggest its season is over. But as ESPN's Kevin Pelton noted last year, it's a bit of a statistical anomaly that in 149 instances, no team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in NBA postseason history.

College basketball statistician Ken Pomeroy made the point that it's a similar oddity to No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament being at one point 135-0 against 16 seeds. Two 16s have defeated one seeds since 2018, but we're still waiting on the first NBA team to lift itself out of a 3-0 hole.

Could the Celtics be the first? Not if the Heat honor Brown's and Smart's wishes.