Heat’s Kyle Lowry and P.J. Tucker available and starting Game 3. Celtics without starter

The Miami Heat will be whole for one of the most important games of its season.

Kyle Lowry (strained left hamstring) and P.J. Tucker (left knee irritation) are in the Heat’s starting lineup for Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals on Saturday night at TD Garden. The Boston Celtics and Heat are tied 1-1 in the series.

Lowry, who was upgraded to questionable on Friday’s injury report, missed the previous four games because of his strained hamstring. In total, he missed eight of the previous 10 games in the playoffs.

Lowry, 36, last played in a game on May 8 in the Heat’s Game 4 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers in the second round of the playoffs. He re-aggravated his hamstring issue in that defeat after missing four games earlier in the playoffs because of the injury.

The Heat is 7-1 in games without Lowry this postseason, as Gabe Vincent has started in his place at point guard. Thursday’s 25-point loss to the Celtics in Game 2 of the East finals marked the first playoff game the Heat has dropped without Lowry.

“He wanted to play in Game 5 last series,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Lowry. “I think we’ve handled this appropriately. I think even the ramp up before that in the Philly series, I think we checked all the boxes. He didn’t re-injure it. I think that was important, so he was still able to heal. If he would have re-injured it, I think he would have been out a lot longer. It’s just that he still felt it, so we erred on the side of caution and took more time.”

As for Tucker, he has yet to miss a game this postseason. But his status for Saturday’s Game 3 was up in the air after he exited Thursday’s Game 2 loss in the third quarter because of a left knee contusion and did not return.

Tucker, 37, was scheduled to undergo an MRI on Friday morning, but Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports reported that the swelling in Tucker’s left knee went down and he was able to bypass the MRI.

“I think all of us are kind of on egg shells when you’re dealing with him,” Spoelstra said when asked if he could ever get Tucker to sit out a game. “You can’t ask him how he’s doing. Then I can’t ask a trainer because if he sees me talk to a trainer, he barks at me and yells at me to stop talking to the trainers. I am allowed to talk to the trainers. That is part of my job. But he is a throwback, by every definition of the word.”

With Lowry and Tucker in the starting lineup, the Heat has its entire 15-man roster available for Game 3 in Boston.

The Celtics will be missing one starter in Game 3, though. Starting center Robert Williams was added to the injury report Saturday afternoon and he’ll miss the contest because of left knee soreness that also forced him to miss time in the second round of the playoffs.

Celtics coach Ime Udoka said Daniel Theis will start in Williams’ place.

The only other player on Boston’s injury report is Sam Hauser, who will miss Game 3 because of right shoulder instability.

WHEN SECOND TEAM ISN’T ENOUGH

Heat center Bam Adebayo was named to the NBA’s All-Defensive Second Team on Friday for the third straight season after being selected for the first time in his career in 2019-20.

But Adebayo is still waiting for his first First-Team selection.

“I feel for him,” Spoelstra said of Adebayo again missing out on the First Team. “Because I think he did everything this year to anchor a great defense. And what we do is really unique, being able to switch on all different kinds of players but then also be able to play different schemes. Without him, we wouldn’t be able to do a lot of these things. The most important thing is we had a great defense. So we just have to keep on doing it. At least, he was on one of the teams and he’s being recognized for that.”

Adebayo received 57 First-Team votes and 38 Second-Team votes, finishing with the most First-Team votes among the players selected to the Second Team. Adebayo even earned two more First-Team votes than Memphis’ Jaren Jackson Jr., who was selected to the First-Team because he received five more Second-Team votes to finish with one more voting point than Adebayo.