Winderman’s view: Celtics flex and Heat find themselves out of counterpunches

MIAMI — Observations and other notes of interest from Saturday  night’s 104-84 NBA playoff loss to the Boston Celtics:

– The outlier became evident on Saturday night.

– When the shorthanded Heat are at their best and the favored Boston Celtics are at their worst, you get Wednesday night’s stunning, hot-shooting Heat victory at TD Garden.

– When the Celtics play to the pedigree of the top regular-season record in the NBA, you get last Sunday’s Boston home romp and then Saturday’s road thrashing of the Heat.

– Even with Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier, the Heat would have had their hands full.

– Without either, there just isn’t a lot there.

– Butler still out with his knee issue, Rozier with his neck ailment.

– From the outset Saturday, it was clear that the Celtics were going to make Game 2 Tyler Herro’s best game of the series.

– Similarly, the Celtics made sure Saturday that Game 2 would stand as Kristaps Porzingis’ worst of the series.

– It was as if Herro lost his way as a playmaker Saturday and Porzingis found his way to again stand tallest.

– And while Erik Spoelstra dialed up every winning stratagem in his book in Game 2, the Celtics showed that talent ultimately trumps all.

– As in Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Porzingis, as well as Jrue Holiday being back to his pesky defensive best, on a night his offense wasn’t needed.

– At the start of the series there was mockery that the Heat wouldn’t even win one.

– Now the odds feel even longer that they won’t win another.

– Which typically is how it is for No. 8 seeds.

– Homecourt hasn’t been a panacea the entire season for the Heat.

– It wasn’t again on Saturday.

– With the Celtics more than comfortable in this building.

– And plenty of their fans in attendance..

– With even more likely on Monday night.

– Which could well stand as the Heat’s final home game of 2023-24.

– With Butler and Rozier, a counterpunch might have been possible.

– Instead it feels as if the Heat already have given it their best shot.

– As they did in the first two games of the series, the Heat opened with Bam Adebayo, Nikola Jovic, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Caleb Martin and Herro.

– That’s with Butler, Rozier and Josh Richardson still sidelined, and with Delon Wright away for a personal family reason.

– The Celtics continued to open with Porzingis, Tatum, Brown, White and Holiday.

– In scoring the Celtics’ first eight points, Porzingis already had more points than in his seven-point Game 2.

– Haywood Highsmith was first off the Heat bench.

– He was followed by Duncan Robinson.

– With Kevin Love making it eight deep.

– Robinson still doesn’t look like himself as he works through his back issue.

– And for Love, anything outside of zone makes him an ill fit for the matchup.

– That had Thomas Bryant, and not Love, entering for Adebayo in the third period.

– It got to the point that Terry Mills got in at the start of the fourth quarter.

– Asked going in if his team now had to counter the Celtics’ counters, Spoelstra said, “It’s a little bit of everything. This is not about scheming to get a win. You’re going to have to do tough things. This is a battle within a battle.”

– Spoelstra added, “You’ve got to stack a bunch of plays to be able to win.”

– On this night, the Heat couldn’t.

– Spoelstra again emphasized how much it means to simply be playing this time of year.

– “We’re grateful to have these opportunities against that franchise, and the feelings that come out of that,” he said.

– So, there’s that.

– Of Jovic’s evolving and improving defense, Spoelstra said, “He’s really worked on his defense. And also Niko can do multiple schemes now. He knows our system now. That’s taken some time.”

– Herro went into the game explaining how much Adebayo means to the Heat defense.

– “Obviously having Bam, he’s the anchor of our defense and any time we have a guy like that on our team, it makes it easier on the rest of us,” Herro said. “He kind of clears up all the miscommunications that we may have, because he’s so good on that side.”

– Asked if the Heat were willing to go back and win in the mud, on more of a slog, Martin said, “That’s how we like our games; they’re not pretty. Like Coach says, we’ll take those games half a point at a time,”

– At times, that’s how the Heat offense felt Saturday.

– Herro extended his streak of games with at least one 3-pointer to 37, dating to the regular season. Herro’s longest such streak is 53 combined regular-season and playoff games, a run that ended March 2, 2021.

– Herro’s ninth 3-point attempt gave him 250 for his playoff career.