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The first-quarter futility from their Monday night Game 4 loss at TD Garden this time came midway through the second half for the Miami Heat.
Which leaves only two options for the Heat’s next home game: a Sunday Game 7 against the Boston Celtics in these Eastern Conference finals, or next October at the outset of the franchise’s 35th season.
Unable to make a shot, particularly a 3-pointer, the Heat fell into a 3-2 series hole with a 93-80 loss Wednesday night. The Celtics can close out the series with a Game 6 victory Friday night on their home court.
It was a game the Heat began in physical pain and exited in series distress.
Jimmy Butler, clearly still dealing with a balky knee, again was off with his shot, this time 4 of 18.
Kyle Lowry, yet to overcome the hamstring strain suffered in the opening round, was largely immobile, without a point or assist.
And Tyler Herro could not even make it to the opening jump, held out a second consecutive game with a groin strain.
“If you want to break through and punch a ticket to the Finals, you’re going to have to do some ridiculously tough stuff,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Getting on to Boston and figuring that out collectively, those are the emotions and the breakthroughs that you have that you remember the rest of your life.”
Center Bam Adebayo led the Heat with 18 points and 10 rebounds, but otherwise there was precious little against the stifling Celtics’ defense.
“We are not making excuses for anything,” Spoelstra said. “We are not deflecting anything. We are not making excuses for it. We lost the game today. We had a tough loss in Boston. We’re still alive. We have an opportunity to play in front of a great crowd and an opportunity to make a memory that you’ll remember for a long time.
“That’s all we’re thinking about right now. And we have the kind of warriors that are going to tape up, brace up, do whatever we’ve got to do to get ready for the next one and just embrace and enjoy that competition.”
Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 25 points, supported by 22 from Jayson Tatum and 16 from Al Horford.
The Celtics are taking nothing for granted.
“We still know what the deal is and what the task at hand is,” coach Ime Udoka.
Five Degrees of Heat from Wednesday’s game:
1. Closing time: The Heat led 19-17 at the end of the first quarter and 42-37 at halftime.
But with a 10-0 run to close the third quarter, the Celtics took a 69-58 lead into the fourth, the game’s first double-digit lead.
The Celtics took off from there, their run eventually growing to 24-2, the Heat nearly as inept as their 18-1 start to Monday night’s Game 4 loss in Boston.
“At the end of the third, those last probably three or four minutes of the third and into the fourth, I think the consecutive missed shots, open shots, started to affect us on the other end and we started to break down a little bit on other end,” Spoelstra said. “But we just have to stay the course. Even as disappointing and as frustrating as this game can be, we get on to Boston and just come together and figure that one out and come back here on the 29th.”
2. Lowry, can’t: Lowry clearly has not gotten back up to speed from the hamstring strain that kept him out of the final two games of the previous round and the first two of this series.
Walking the ball up the court and often having others handling, Lowry was pulled midway though the fourth quarter.
He closed 0 for 6 from the field and 0 for 5 on 3-pointers in his 24:40, with five fouls and three turnovers.
“Just try to play and help the team win, no matter what the situation is,” Lowry said. “If I’m out there, I’ve got to play and play better.”
The Heat’s only life at point guard came from Gabe Vincent, whose 10 points at the end of the third quarter were tied with Adebayo for team high at that stage. Vincent closed with 15.
3. Nor can Butler: Although off the injury report two games after sitting out the second half of Saturday’s Game 3 due to knee pain, Butler again appeared to lack explosion.
A game after shooting 3 of 14 Monday in Boston, Butler this time opened 1 of 7 from the field, often off on drives that needed stronger finishes.
He then dropped to 2 of 10 before his next basket.
He later stepped up with a 3-pointer in that opening period, his second of the series, but then airballed a 3-point attempt on the Heat’s first possession of the fourth.
“Honestly, it doesn’t matter,” Butler said of his knee. “If I’m out there, I’ve got to do better.
“I’m fine, my knee is OK. I’ve just got to do better.”
4. Doomed from distance: The Heat closed 7 of 45 on 3-pointers, with Game 3 hero Max Strus 0 for 7, Lowry 0 for 5, Vincent 1 for 7, Duncan Robinson 3 of 10 and Butler and P.J. Tucker each 1 of 5. It made the Celtics’ 10 of 33 seem robust by comparison.
The Heat led the NBA in 3-point shooting during the regular season, at .379, but went into Wednesday 13th in the 16-team playoff field at .326, before this .156.
“We just weren’t able to overcome the inefficiency offensively,” Spoelstra said. “I do want to get to the film. I know everybody says that afterward, but I feel like we got shots in our wheelhouse for the large part of the night.”
5. Revised rotation: Small ball was the Heat’s order of the day, with 6-foot-5 Tucker cast at center after the first wave of substitutions and Dewayne Dedmon shuffled out of the mix.
Victor Oladipo and Vincent entered together first off the bench, followed by Robinson, who was utilized ahead of Caleb Martin and Dedmon.
It was the second consecutive game that Oladipo essentially was cast in Herro’s sixth-man role.
Martin later entered as ninth man, before Spoelstra reached for Robinson amid the Heat’s shooting struggles.
Spoelstra said he was comfortable with the small-ball approach.
“I thought it was good,” he said. “I thought, again, we were executing with purpose, with intention. It’s not all perfect. We had some turnovers at key times when we had leads that possibly we could have pushed it a little bit further along.”
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