Injuries and offensive issues have Heat on brink of elimination: ‘We know that we can win’

Despite standing just two wins from reaching the NBA Finals, a trip to the championship series seems improbable for the Miami Heat at this point.

The Heat’s offense has yet to even come close to solving the Boston Celtics’ elite defense, and injuries have looked to limit some of Miami’s best players. The result: The Heat is trailing 3-2 in the best-of-7 Eastern Conference finals series and must now find a way to win in Boston to keep its season alive.

But the Heat remains hopeful that it can take the first step in digging out of that hole in Game 6 at TD Garden on Friday (8:30 p.m., ESPN), with a loss ending Miami’s season and a win forcing a Game 7 on Sunday at FTX Arena. The Celtics are nine-point betting favorites over the Heat in Game 6.

“You’ve got to enjoy this. You do,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said, as he looked to keep his team confident after dropping a pivotal Game 5 by a score of 93-80 at FTX Arena on Wednesday night. “If you want to break through and punch a ticket to the Finals, you’re going to have to do some ridiculously tough stuff.

“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. Bring this thing back [to a Game 7] on [May] 29th.”

In order to do that, the Heat’s offense will need to play a lot better in Game 6 than it did in Games 4 and 5.

The Celtics, which closed the regular season with the NBA’s top defensive rating, has suffocated the life out of the Heat’s offense in the last two games. After taking a 2-1 lead in the series, Miami averaged just 81 points per game on 32.6 percent shooting from the field and 21 of 81 (25.9 percent) shooting on threes in losses in Games 4 and 5.

Game 5 was especially rough, as the Heat shot just 31.9 percent from the field and 7 of 45 (15.6 percent) from three-point range on Wednesday. Miami made just 10 of 52 (19.2 percent) shots from outside of the paint in the loss, with the Celtics daring the Heat to beat them with midrange and three-point looks as defenders continued to sag closer to the basket.

“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.”

While some of the Heat’s missed shots in Game 5 were open looks, a lot of them were also contested as Boston’s quality defense continued to make Miami’s offense uncomfortable.

The Heat has only shot worse from the field than it did Wednesday in a playoff game once in franchise history, when it made 30.5 percent of its shots in a 73-70 loss to the Indiana Pacers on May 18, 2004. Miami’s offensive performance in Game 5 also marked the third time in NBA history that a team has shot worse than 16 percent on 35 or more three-point attempts in a playoff game.

“Look, they are a great defense,” Spoelstra said of the Celtics. “It’s not like we’re going to score 130. What I’m looking at is are we getting shots in our wheelhouse, shots that are in our strength zones. If we are missing some of those shots, you can’t just panic and try to reinvent things. I know how ignitable our guys are. That can turn in a hurry, particularly on the road.”

A big part of the Heat’s offensive struggles, though, can be explained by its injury issues.

Guard Tyler Herro, who was named the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year this season, has missed the last two games because of a strained left groin and his status for Game 6 remains unclear. Without Herro, the Heat is missing a player who averaged 20.7 points on a team-high 17 shots per game in the regular season and is arguably the best shot creator on the roster.

The Heat’s best player, Jimmy Butler, has not looked the same since sitting out the second half of Game 3 because of right knee inflammation. Butler finished Wednesday’s loss with 13 points 4-of-18 shooting from the field and has totaled just 19 points on 7-of-32 (21.9 percent) shooting from the field in the last two games.

Butler, who generated 18 free throws in Game 1 of the East finals, has drawn just six free throws in the last three games. He averaged 8.7 free throws per game in the playoffs before this recent stretch.

Heat starting point guard Kyle Lowry returned from a strained left hamstring in Game 3 of the East finals and has not looked anything close to his usual self. Lowry finished Wednesday loss without a point or assist in 25 minutes, marking the first game in his NBA career that he has not recorded a point or an assist while playing more than 15 minutes.

When asked how limiting their respective injuries have been, Butler and Lowry refused to make excuses for their struggles.

“Man, honestly, it doesn’t matter,” Butler said. “If I’m out there, I’ve got to do better. I’ve got to find a way to help us win, and I haven’t been doing that. I’m fine. My knee is okay. I’ve just got to do better. It’s no excuse.”

Lowry added: “Just try to play and help the team win. No matter what situation we’re in, I’ve got to play better. I’ve playing terrible. It is what it is. I’m out there, so I’ve got to do a better job.”

The Celtics are also dealing with injuries to key players but have been able to overcome it so far in this series. Star Jayson Tatum has been playing through a right shoulder injury, guard Marcus Smart returned in Game 5 after missing Game 4 because of a sprained right ankle and center Robert Williams has been battling left knee soreness for weeks.

“We’re not making excuses for anything. We are not deflecting anything,” Spoelstra emphasized. “We are not making excuses for it.

“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.”

Boston enters Game 6 with all of the momentum. But no matter how far the Heat currently looks from the NBA Finals, the Celtics know that wasting Friday’s series-clinching opportunity would completely change the conversation around the series.

“Don’t look past them,” Tatum said of the Celtics’ approach in Game 6. “Don’t believe what you guys say on TV, that we’re going to the championship, because this is far from over. ... This is a great team, well-coached. They not going to give up. It’s not going to be easy.”

The Heat won’t give up. But the problem is that doesn’t matter if Miami simply isn’t healthy enough.

“Besides the fact that anything is possible, we know what we are capable of,” Butler said of what gives him confidence entering Game 6. “We know we can play some really good basketball and we know that we are going to play some really good basketball. It’s going to have to start in this next game up in Boston. But I just think that we know that we can win.”