Heat looks to land next punch in odd series: ‘I don’t know how to explain it. It’s wild’

It is the Eastern Conference Finals of the Absurd, a series that’s competitive, yet simultaneously uncompetitive, a competition that’s even, yet mostly lopsided.

So how do you explain a series when the Heat and Celtics are good enough to be a 2-2 after four games, yet annihilate each other for extended stretches?

How do you decipher a series that is tied after four games and yet has had only four combined lead changes?

Both coaches took a crack at explaining the weirdness, as the Eastern Finals shifts to FTX Arena for Game 5 on Wednesday (8:30 p.m., ESPN).

“Sometimes when you have two really competitive teams, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be a one-point game,” Erik Spoelstra said after his team was walloped, 102-82, in Game 4 on Monday night. “It means that it can be flammable either way. Both teams are ignitable.

“Both teams can really defend and get teams out of their comfort zone and distort a lot of things offensively, and that can fuel big runs on the other end.

“Whatever they have done to us, we can do to them. Here are these extreme highs and lows, particularly when you have two teams that are pretty closely, evenly matched.”

Celtics coach Ime Udoka, explaining the wild swings in momentum, cited “the urgency from the team that’s coming off that loss. It’s an inconsistent series from both teams at times, and it’s an odd one, honestly, when you look at some of the numbers [in Game 4], the way we didn’t shoot or play offense that great and having a 30-point lead.”

The series has been so odd that there has been just one lead change over the past 165 minutes, according to StatMuse. There were three lead changes in the first 27 minutes of the series.

Dominant runs - like Miami’s 22-2 burst in Game 1 and 60-35 start to Game 3 and Boston’s 26-4 stampede to open Game 4 - have been the norm.

“I don’t know how to explain it,” said Heat guard Victor Oladipo, who scored 23 points in Game 4. “It’s wild, right?”

The Heat led by 20 and 26 in Games 1 and 3, the Celtics by 24 and 32 in Games 2 and 4.

Why is this happening?

“These playoff games are extremely long, and they’re a really good team,” Boston’s Jayson Tatum said.

One reality throughout these playoffs: The Celtics are really good after a loss, 5-0 now in that situation.

Center Robert Williams said Boston came out maniacally in Game 4 “obviously because we lost last game. That’s how our team is. We need to work on being better in that aspect. We shouldn’t have to get punched in the mouth to respond.”

But if the Celtics only win after losses the rest of the way, they would lose this series.

“Human nature plays a part in that; when you win a game you can relax a little bit,” said Tatum, who scored 14 of his 31 points from the free throw line on Monday.

“When we lose a game, we feel like the next game is do or die, and then we come out and play like we did. We have to have that mindset going into Game 5, that it is a must-win game.”

One common theme for the Heat in the losses: poor shooting, defensive lapses and not enough force in how it runs its offense. The Heat took only three shots in the basket area in the first half of Game 4, which ended with Miami down 57-33. Miami was 0 for 13 on shots of 5 to 9 feet.

“We just got to be more physical,” said Jimmy Butler, who shot just 3 for 14 in Game 4 but indicated that had “nothing to do” with his knee. “You shoot a lot of jump shots, which we tended to do [Monday], and it’s hard getting to the free-throw line. We have to be more of a forceful-type team, getting into the paint, not shying away from contact and playing from the inside out.

“We settled for too many mid-range jump shots, myself included. A lot of shots behind the three that weren’t even good ones, at that. We need to move the ball around, get it to the open guy and let that guy make the play and live with what we get out of it.”

“When anybody tries to hit a home run and do it by themselves, we kind of get in trouble. Ball sticks. We turn the ball over. We take a bad shot. We just need to do everything together like we’ve been doing all year long. It will be on myself, on Kyle [Lowry], on Bam [Adebayo] to make sure that we make that happen.”

Lowry said the Heat “can’t dwell too much” on a Game 4 in which Miami set two 21st century NBA records: longest drought without a field goal to start a playoff game (8:38) and fewest points by a starting five (18) since the NBA began tracking that in 1970.

“Let it hurt,” Lowry said. “Let it sting and move forward.”

Perhaps Game 5 will finally deliver a dramatic, back-and-forth game instead of what we’ve witnessed.

“Outside of these crazy runs, you have two really competitive teams,” Spoelstra said. “The scores [don’t] really give the true indication of how competitive it is.”