‘Everybody gets emotional’: Spoelstra denies that Heat tried to injure Tatum
BOSTON
The two-day break ahead of Game 2 between the Heat and Boston was filled with a conversation about a play that happened with the Celtics ahead by 16 points and less than a minute to play in Game 1 of their firstround series.
With the Celtics having locked up the win Sunday, Heat forward Caleb Martin crashed the offensive glass after a missed shot by center Bam Adebayo. Martin collided with Jayson Tatum and the Celtics’ All-Star forward crashed to the court with 59.4 seconds left.
Martin immediately attempted to help Tatum up, but he was shoved aside by Celtics forward
Jaylen Brown. Technicals were called on Martin and Brown, but the foul was not ruled flagrant.
While Tatum walked away seemingly unscathed and Martin appeared to slap hands respectfully with Tatum a few possessions later, the conversation surrounding Martin’s hard foul escalated after the game when Celtics television analyst and former NBA big man
Brian Scalabrine labeled it a “dirty play.”
Scalabrine also accused Heat coach Erik Spoelstra of issuing a “code red” during a late-game timeout to commit the physical foul on one of the Celtics’ stars.
“I don’t even think it’s worth addressing,” Spoelstra said Tuesday at practice. “I get it. Everybody gets emotional. You ask fans on one side how they view the play, you ask fans on our side how they view they play and you’re going to get two totally different viewpoints.
“But that’s the playoffs. That’s the fun part also for fan bases. It was an irrational assessment from our view of what actually happened.”
As for Martin, he said Tuesday that he “would never try to hurt somebody.”
“Anybody who knows me, I don’t feel the need to try to take out guys in order to beat somebody,” Martin said. “The first thing I did was turn around and check if he was OK. If I was trying to take somebody out, I would have just kept walking away. That’s just not who I am. It’s the playoffs. Hard fouls happen all the time.
“If anybody watches it, I clearly got pushed into him. I was going for a putback dunk and the push changed the trajectory. Stuff just happens.”
But Martin wasn’t surprised that the hard foul drew scrutiny from Celtics supporters.
“It’s that time of year when things get amplified and everybody likes to try to have a say in something,” Martin said. “... So I’m not tripping.”
Spoelstra said the “outside noise” won’t affect anything.
“This is good, clean, tough, physical playoff basketball and it always has been with Boston,” he said. “It’s not going over the top. The league doesn’t need to look into anything more on either side, put extra eyes on it. This is just tough competitive basketball.”
ROBINSON STILL LIMITED
Three-point shooting forward Duncan Robinson is back for the Heat, but he’s still limited by the back injury that sidelined him for five straight games in late March and the final four games of the regular season.
“I probably won’t feel totally myself until I get an extended, extended rest,” he said Tuesday.
Robinson, 30, averaged 12.9 points this season while shooting 39.5 percent on seven three-point attempts per game. He averaged 28 minutes.
But in his first two games back from injury, Robinson played just 12 minutes Friday in the play-in tournament win over Chicago and only 15 minutes in Sunday’s loss to Boston. He has combined to shoot 3 of 7 from three-point range in those two games.
How far is Robinson from being 100 percent healthy?
“I’m not here to give a percentage or say that I’m feeling this way versus that way,” he said. “If I’m available, I’m available. Obviously, the other team is not going easy on me because I don’t feel whatever. So if I’m out there, I’m doing whatever I can to the best of my ability. But that’s just what this time of year calls for.”
THIS AND THAT
The Celtics took 12 more threes and made 10 more threes than the Heat on Sunday to outscore Miami 66-36 from threepoint range.
How does the Heat plan to keep up with the Celtics’ three-point shooting, which has been prolific all season? Miami will try to take more threes while attempting to limit Boston’s opportunities beyond the arc.
“I understand the math to it. I do,” Spoelstra said. “I mean, you don’t want to lose 30 points in a certain area. We shot more threes last game. We still left some on the table.
“I don’t know if we’ll end up shooting 49. So there’s going to have to be some kind of balance, bringing their number down a little bit.
“We’re not going to bring their threes down to 25, that’s not realistic.
And we’re not going to shoot 50. But there is a balance there, where
DENVER 2, L.A. LAKERS 0
G1: Denver 114, L.A. Lakers 103
Monday: Denver 101, L.A. Lakers 99 Thursday: at L.A. Lakers, 10
Saturday: at L.A. Lakers, 8:30 x-Monday, April 29: at Denver, TBD x-Thursday, May 2: at L.A. Lakers, TBD x-Saturday, May 4: at Denver, TBD
MINNESOTA 1, PHOENIX 0
G1: Minnesota 120, Phoenix 95
Tuesday: at Minnesota
Friday: at Phoenix, 10:30
Sunday: at Phoenix, 9:30 x-Tuesday, April 30: at Minnesota, TBD x-Thursday, May 2: at Phoenix, TBD x-Saturday, May 4: at Minnesota, TBD
L.A. CLIPPERS 1, DALLAS 0
G1: L.A. Clippers 109, Dallas 97
Tuesday: at L.A. Clippers
Friday: at Dallas, 8
Sunday: at Dallas, 3:30 x-Wednesday, May 1: at L.A. Clippers, TBD x-Friday, May 3: at Dallas, TBD x-Sunday, May 5: at L.A. Clippers, TBD there’s a line where we can take a few more and hopefully get them off a few more.”
With the Celtics’ roster featuring multiple elite perimeter defenders to use on Heat guard Tyler Herro, Spoelstra said the team “needs to get a little bit more intentional in our actions to shake him free.”
Herro struggled to make shots in Game 1, finishing Sunday’s loss with 11 points on 4-of-13 shooting from the field (3 of 9 on threes).
INJURY REPORT
The Heat again ruled out Jimmy Butler (right knee MCL sprain) and Terry Rozier (neck spasms) for Game 2 on Wednesday.
The only player on the Celtics’ injury report was Luke Kornet, out with a right calf strain.