MIAMI – As the Miami Heat are down 0-3 to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first-round playoff series, it’s no doubt been an eye-opening series for the team going up against the No. 1 seed unit in the Eastern Conference. It was a frustrating showcase on Saturday afternoon when the Heat suffered their worst playoff loss in franchise history in Game 3, losing to the Cavs by 37 points, as head coach Erik Spoelstra spoke on the experience of the team.Speaking after Sunday’s practice, he would run through the journey up until Game 4 on Monday, saying that Miami is about to embark on their third win-or-go-home situation, referencing the two prior play-in tournament games. With the team putting themselves in this situation, Spoelstra admitted how “humbling” it has been as the team looks to not get swept.
“Look, this is our third elimination game that we’ve played in 10 days,” Spoelstra said. “So we just went to work, working on solutions. We put ourselves out there to be in this series. We wanted to be in this series, we fought to be in this series, and this is what happens with competition. They’re a good team, and this game can be humbling. And we haven’t found a way to get a win right now, so we just went right to work, you know, to try to find solutions to be better for each other tomorrow.”
Heat ramping up the intensity heading into Game 4
With the Heat looking to avoid the brooms coming out, one would think that Sunday’s practice before Game 4 would have the most sense of urgency. However, team captain Bam Adebayo would say to ClutchPoints that Miami is taking “the same approach,” though the “intensity” has shifted.
“I feel like we’re taking the same approach as we have all season,” Adebayo said. “We’ve been on a 10-game losing streak and had to come in here and obviously figure out how to get out of that. So I don’t think it has changed, I definitely think a lot of us have picked up the intensity throughout the playoffs.”
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There’s no doubt that for the team to extend the series, Heat star Tyler Herro has to overcome the Cavs’ defensive pressure and bounce back after a 13-point outing in Game 3. He would speak about the exciting challenge to ClutchPoints on making history since no team has ever come back from a 0-3 series deficit, but stresses that the team is taking it “one game at a time.”
“Just take it one game at a time,” Herro said. “There’s definitely a path to it. We know it won’t be easy. We just got to clean some things up, and we’ll look hopefully a lot better than we did. That’s our path to Game 7 — winning one at home and then obviously going to get one in Cleveland.”
Miami’s do-or-die Game 4 against Cleveland will be on Monday night.
