Heat’s Bam Adebayo, Erik Spoelstra vocal on 1 major motivation to win Game 5 vs. Celtics

Spoelstra says Heat are eager to play well in front of fans

It has been a glaring problem for the Heat and their performance at home in the playoffs as the Game 4 defeat marks the sixth straight, granted the two teams involved are the Celtics and the Denver Nuggets in last year’s NBA Finals series. However, Spoelstra said to ClutchPoints that the team “embraces really tough challenges” as Miami “really wants to play well in front of our fans.”

“This a very mentally tough team and a team that embraces really tough challenges,” Spoelstra said. “And we’re also able to compartmentalize, you don’t want to think about the big picture. This is about to just go out there and do whatever we have to do to get that win and get back here to our fans here in Miami. Like I said, our team really wants to play well in front of our fans. So that’s the motivation to get this thing back here.”

It was a slog of an offense for Miami as they once again started slow which looking at the last two losses of the series, that usually leads to negative results. Part of the reasoning is that the team is still missing stars Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier, but the loss is still disappointing as Tyler Herro, who finished with 19 points, said that the goal right now is to “wrap our mind around on getting one game in Boston.”

“Get our minds right, that’s it,” Herro said. “Get our minds right, get on this flight and just wrap our mind around on getting one game in Boston and figure it out from there.”

Caleb Martin says Heat haven’t give fans something to cheer for

There’s no doubt that it was a frustrating game for the Heat as defensively, there was a lot to like despite Derrick White exploding for 38 points as they held Boston to just over 100 points total. However, the energy on that side of the floor didn’t reciprocate to the offense since it’s their second straight game scoring under 90 as Caleb Martin said to ClutchPoints that it “doesn’t sit right” with Miami that the crowd hasn’t been given a “game to really cheer for.”

“We haven’t given our crowd a game to really cheer for yet, so you know, that doesn’t sit right with with any of us on this end,” Martin said. “And that’s typically when we work our best with our back against the wall and you know we have no other choice, so it sucks that it’s usually like that but typically it is and hopefully it’s it’s one of those nights in Boston. But you know we got to come to play and not second guess me, we just got to play and be free I think on the defensive end we’re doing enough to get a win and we just gotta get find ways to get the ball in the basket.”

Miami’s season is on life support as they are down 3-1 in the series against the No. 1 seeded Celtics with a chance to keep their hopes alive on Wednesday in Game 5. The Heat look to be the 14th team to come back from a 3-1 series deficit and beat their opponent.