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What adjustments will Heat make for Game 4? And why Celtics believe 3-day break helps them

The Miami Heat has not faced much adversity between games during its playoff run.

After all, the Heat had only dropped one game this postseason before Saturday’s Game 3 loss to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals. Miami is 10-2 this postseason.

But considering the first playoff loss came when it already had a 3-0 lead in its second-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks, the Heat is just now dealing with its first real postseason adversity after falling to the Celtics 117-106 on Saturday for its first double-digit defeat of the playoffs.

“Coming together today and working on a few things, our spirit is right, our head is right, our energy is there, so I think we’re responding the right way,” Heat forward Jae Crowder said following Monday’s practice. “We’re just trying to get better and trying to see how we can play a complete game, play a complete 48-minute game and be as sharp as we can be on both ends of the court.

“With that being said, I think we took the loss, we took the adversity in a good way. And we’re still taking it in. We’re still having meetings tonight. We’re still digesting the adversity we faced, and we’re going to obviously talk it out and get better.”

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Miami still holds a 2-1 series lead over Boston, with an important Game 4 set for Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. from Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex.

The Celtics made adjustments after dropping the first two games of the East finals, and now it’s the Heat’s turn to adjust to those Boston adjustments that worked Saturday. Miami held a team film session Monday morning, and Crowder said there was more film study on the schedule for Monday night.

“Obviously, I don’t want to give everything away,” Crowder said. “But, obviously, we’ve got to make adjustments, and that’s what we’ve been doing. We’ve been practicing, watching film. We’ll continue to do so. But obviously it’ll be a different game plan, different approach moving forward.”

One of the big adjustments will simply be to play better defense.

The Heat has allowed 113.3 points per 100 possessions in the East finals. For context, only four NBA teams finished the regular season with a worse defensive rating.

Boston is shooting an efficient 47.3 percent from the field in the East finals, a team shooting percentage that would have ranked fourth best in the regular season.

“To keep it simple, just guard the ball better,” Crowder said of Miami’s defensive issues. “Obviously we can do a lot of different things to help the ball — the defender on the ball — but I feel like we’ve got to take pride and get our pride back in guarding the ball, guarding the guy in front of you and making it as tough as possible. ... That’s No. 1.”

The Celtics outscored the Heat 60-36 in the paint in Game 3. It’s the most paint points Miami has allowed this postseason and just the fourth time it has allowed 60 or more paint points this entire season.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that that ain’t going to work,” coach Erik Spoelstra said of the Heat’s Game 3 defense. “It’s competition. They had something to say about that, and they came out with great force off the dribble. They were driving and attacking in a lot of different situations, and we did not handle that well.”

The Heat is working to take advantage of the three-day gap between Games 3 and 4 to make sure it puts together a more complete effort Wednesday.

“The series has become a matter of adjustments and counters and then counters to counters,” Heat forward Andre Iguodala said. “It’s kind of a game of chess. We’ve got to do a better job of imposing our will defensively with our principles and things we’re trying to do.”

THIS AND THAT

Spoelstra said no Heat players were held out of Monday’s practice, but noted “it wasn’t like a full practice.”

Iguodala missed the second half of Game 2 with lower back spasms, and he also did not play in the second half of Game 3. He grabbed two rebounds and went scoreless in seven first-half minutes Saturday.

“Just trying to roll with the punches and understand that you’ve got some unknowns and the body may not react as well as you would like,” Iguodala said Monday. “One thing you don’t want to be is a detriment to the team and just sticking through it and being ready for whatever lies ahead for you.”

Iguodala said he was not having a good day in the NBA bubble Monday.

“You have good days and you have bad days,” Iguodala said. “Luckily for myself, there has been more good days, which I really can appreciate. Sometimes I have to remind myself to stay positive on those bad days, like today is kind of like a really [expletive] day.

“My teammates are helping me through those down days. I haven’t had many, honestly. When those guys are having down days, I’m there for them. I think that goes to the chemistry thing, just picking each other up. I think this environment is, we’re really built for this environment. Kind of puts us at an advantage, and just keep reminding ourselves of that. But that’s brought the team even closer together.”

In Gordon Hayward’s first game back from a sprained right ankle that forced him to miss 12 consecutive games, the Celtics immediately turned to their much-hyped “best five” lineup in Game 3.

The five-man combination of Kemba Walker, Marcus Smart, Jayson Tatum, Hayward and Jaylen Brown did not disappoint, posting a plus/minus of plus-13 in seven minutes together Saturday.

“The idea was we have to get those guys on the court as much as possible,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said of the “best five” group. “Their defense together was great and led to some run-outs that were huge baskets for us. The more you can play our best players, the better, and those are our five best.”

Smart, considered one of the league’s best defenders, handled the defensive assignment more often on Goran Dragic in Game 3, and it was likely no coincidence that Dragic had his worst game of the playoffs (2 for 10 shooting).

“He’s a crafty player, understands how to use his body, understands how to use the rules well,” Smart said on Monday. “You can’t let him be comfortable. In Game 3, we decided to come out and make him as uncomfortable as possible. My coaches and teammates trusted me with that assignment. You have to give him different looks and make him as uncomfortable as possible.”

Smart said the three off days between Games 3 and 4 is benefiting the Celtics.

“For us, it’s a blessing,” Smart of Game 4 being played on Wednesday instead of Monday. “We got Gordon Hayward back off injury. Lots of guys [are recovering from] injuries. It allows us time for our bodies to rejuvenate and try to even this series.”

Smart spoke to reporters for the first time since he and Brown reportedly exchanged angry words — The Athletic reported they needed to be separated — following Boston’s loss in Game 2. He described the Celtics’ postgame locker room as “electrifying” and said the commotion after the game ultimately benefited them. Boston subsequently won Game 3.

“The fact we were having those conversations. I would have been more worried after the Game 2 loss if everyone was calm, cool and collected,” Smart said. “For us to find that fuel to get us back on the right track was something important.

“We’re a family; families fight all the time. I fight with my brothers all the time. It happens between families, especially families like us who have been together for so long. You have a lot of guys who play with their feelings and hearts on their sleeve. It’s going to happen. We weren’t supposed to be happy down 0-2. We’re playing against a great Miami team and we can’t have lapses like that…. Before you see the rainbow, it has to storm. That was a storm we have to go through. We are at a happy place.”