Don’t tell depleted Heat they don’t have enough vs. Celtics. ‘We have enough to get the job done’

The Miami Heat always believes it has enough to compete. But the question the Heat faces at the moment is does it have enough to win its first-round playoff series against the loaded Boston Celtics?

Already playing without its best player in Jimmy Butler (sprained MCL) and another important starter in Terry Rozier (neck spasms), the Heat is also missing the usual production from two other vital pieces. Duncan Robinson is available but has been limited by his lingering back injury and Kevin Love is available but has had his minutes cut in the series because of an unfavorable matchup.

“We have our guys, we have enough to get the job done,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra again emphasized after Saturday night’s ugly 104-84 loss to the Celtics at Kaseya Center in Game 3 of their series. “We understand the challenge and that’s what our competitors love about this series. We know we have to play hard and we also have to play well.”

3-point shooting again a Heat talking point after Game 3 loss: ‘Guys just have to shoot the ball’

The short-handed Heat did not play well enough on Saturday, as the Celtics dominated Game 3 to regain home-court advantage and take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 playoff series.

The Celtics pulled ahead by as many as 29 points in the blowout victory, holding the Heat to just 84 points on 41.6 percent shooting from the field and 9-of-28 (32.1 percent) shooting from three-point range. The Heat’s 84 points on Saturday marked the fewest points it has scored in any game since the 2022 Eastern Conference finals.

“I don’t think we really brought that dog tonight like we did in Game 2, where we set the tone from the jump,” Heat All-Star center Bam Adebayo said. “We didn’t do that [Saturday]. So obviously, when you don’t have that type of dog mentality, you can get blown out by 20.”

But as the Heat gathered for a film session on Sunday ahead of Game 4 on Monday at Kaseya Center (7:30 p.m., Bally Sports Sun and TNT), the reality is Miami is facing an incredibly steep uphill battle against one of the NBA’s top teams while essentially missing four irreplaceable players.

▪ Butler, who is the Heat’s best player and led the team in points per game and assists per game this regular season, missed his fourth straight game on Saturday because of a knee injury. After Butler sprained his MCL during the Heat’s play-in tournament loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on April 17, the Heat announced he would miss “several weeks.”

“I don’t know about a timeline, but we’ve been working,” Butler said as part of an interview with TNT’s Chris Haynes during the network’s broadcast of Saturday’s game. “I want to hoop. I want to get out here. I want some of this.”

Butler remains out for Game 4 on Monday.

▪ Rozier, who started in 30 of his 31 regular-season appearances with the Heat after being acquired through a trade with the Charlotte Hornets, sat out his ninth straight game on Saturday because of his neck injury. There’s still no clear timetable for Rozier’s return and Spoelstra said Sunday that he remains “day-to-day.”

“You feel for him for not being out there because all the competitors want to be out there for this,” Spoelstra said.

Rozier will also miss Game 4 on Monday.

▪ Robinson, who missed nine of the final 14 regular-season games because of a back injury listed as left facet syndrome, has played in the first three games of the series but has clearly been limited by the lingering back issue. He logged only seven minutes off the Heat’s bench in Game 3 on Saturday and did not put up a shot after shooting 39.5 percent on seven three-point attempts per game in 28 minutes per game this regular season.

“Duncan is not going to make an excuse for it, I’m not going to make an excuse for him,” Spoelstra said following Saturday’s loss.

Robinson said serving as a limited option in the series because of the back injury has “definitely been a challenge.”

“I am available,” Robinson said Sunday. “I’m just trying to do whatever I can to help us try to win this next game. Right now, we’re just taking it game by game.”

▪ Love has simply been played off the floor in the series so far, with his playing time going down in each game. After producing positive minutes as the Heat’s backup center in the regular season, he played just one four-minute stint in Game 3 and now holds a rough plus/minus of minus-24 in 23 total minutes during the series.

“I was looking for a spark once we were down 20,” Spoelstra said of going away from Love on Saturday. “This is not an indictment on anybody. Things move fast in a playoff series.”

With the Heat opting to use more of its switching defensive coverage against the Celtics over the last two games, it has opted against using Love for his usual minutes. That’s because the Heat usually goes to its zone defense with Love on the court and the Celtics have fared very well against the zone during the series.

“I think it’s on me just to stay ready, whether it’s plug minutes or a longer stint or just understanding that this is a team that you have to switch against a lot,” Love said Sunday. “I think naturally that plays to a lot of guys’ strengths and there’s certain lineups where we do that, whether we go small or plug [Nikola Jovic] in at the five. I just think that they’ve in some ways, whether it be offensive rebounding or finding shots in the corner from three, have been able to take advantage of our zone.”

The absences or limitations of those four important rotation players left six other Heat players (Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Haywood Highsmith, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Jovic and Caleb Martin) logging 30-plus minutes in Game 3.

But instead of pointing out who was missing, Spoelstra explained Saturday’s Game 3 loss like this: “They were the more physical team. They bodied us, bullied us on screens, got through stuff, distorted screens, everything, flattened us out once we got past that first six, seven, eight minutes of the game. So you have to credit them for that. They were the more physical team, the team with more physicality and force on both ends of the court.”

But the bottom line is without Butler and Rozier, the Heat is missing 37.2 points per game from its regular-season attack. Then add in a limited Love and Robinson, and that number grows to 58.9 points per game that the Heat is missing from its regular-season offense.

That’s tough to overcome against a Celtics team that posted the best offensive rating in NBA history this regular season, whether the Heat admits or not.

“We’ll get to work and work on getting a better version for ourselves for Monday night, which we’re fully capable of,” Spoelstra said. “We understand that. We have competitors. Nobody feels good about this in our locker room. But we also respect Boston, what they’re capable of.”

▪ While the Heat remains without Adebayo, Rozier and Josh Richardson (season-ending shoulder surgery), Delon Wright is listed as probable for Game 4 after missing Game 3 because of a personal family matter.