Takeaways from Game 3 rout over Celtics, as Heat moves one win from NBA Finals berth

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s dominant 128-102 win against the Boston Celtics on Sunday night at Kaseya Center in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference finals. The eighth-seeded Heat now holds a 3-0 lead over the second-seeded Celtics in the best-of-7 series, with Game 4 on Tuesday in Miami (8:30 p.m., TNT):

The Celtics finally started doubling Jimmy Butler in Game 3, but the Heat made them pay with another incredible three-point shooting performance.

Butler has arguably been the NBA’s best player this postseason. He entered Sunday averaging 31.1 points, 6.6 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game while shooting 51.8 percent from the field in this year’s playoffs.

The Celtics didn’t send many double-teams at Butler in the first two games of the series, but they tweaked their game plan to throw extra defenders at him in Game 3.

The result was Butler’s lowest scoring performance of this year’s playoffs, as he finished with 16 points on 5-of-13 shooting from the field and 6-of-7 shooting from the foul line, eight rebounds, six assists and two steals.

Butler’s co-star Bam Adebayo scored just 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the field in 26 minutes.

But Adebayo and Butler didn’t need to score much because of the three-point shooting barrage from the Heat’s supporting cast.

The Heat shot an amazing 19 of 35 (54.3 percent) from three-point range in Game 3, outscoring the Celtics 57-33 from beyond the arc. Boston shot just 11 of 42 (26.2 percent) from deep.

Heat starting guard Gabe Vincent led the way, setting an NBA career high for any game with 29 points on 11-of-14 shooting from the field and 6-of-9 shooting from deep.

Duncan Robinson scored 22 points on 5-of-7 shooting from three-point range off the bench. During Sunday’s win, Robinson passed LeBron James for the most three-point makes in Heat playoff history with 124.

Caleb Martin added 18 points on 4-of-7 shooting from beyond the arc.

Of how the Heat handled the Celtics’ double-teams on Butler, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said: “There was one turnover in the first half, but we’ve been dealing with this for a little bit, not just in the postseason. There were a handful of key games going down the stretch where teams were committed to trying to take the ball out of his hands. So that gave us some things to work on during the regular season.

“And then we handled it much better after that one turnover. We just got a little bit more organized. The spacing was much better, and then the plays out of the trap, guys were assertive on the catch.”

It’s just the continuation of the Heat’s three-point surge during this postseason. Miami is now shooting 44 of 92 (47.8 percent) from three-point range through the first three games of the East finals and 38.8 percent in this year’s playoffs.

These are eye-opening numbers for any team, but especially for a Heat team that finished the regular season with the league’s fourth-worst team three-point percentage at 34.4 percent.

Meanwhile, the Celtics closed the regular season with the second-most made threes in the NBA behind only the Golden State Warriors. Boston recorded the league’s sixth-best team three-point percentage (37.7 percent) on the second-most attempts (42.6 per game) this regular season.

But Boston has shot just 31 of 106 (29.2 percent) from three-point range through the first three games of the East finals.

The Heat was in full control of Game 3 from start to finish, pulling ahead by as many as 33 points. Miami took the lead with 5:04 left in the first quarter and never trailed again.

“I just didn’t have them ready to play,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said, taking the blame for the Game 3 loss. “I just didn’t execute the proper game plan. I didn’t put them in the right mentality to be ready, and it’s my job to make sure that they’re connected and that they’re ready to play, and I didn’t do that.”

With Sunday’s 26-point win, the Heat became the first No. 8 seed in NBA history to win a playoff game by more than 25 points, according to ESPN Stats & Info.

“That was a solid, mature, professional approach,” Spoelstra said. “You know, there’s a lot of pent-up stuff here, and we’re getting closer. But you know, we still have to finish this off.”

The Heat is now 11-3 during this year’s playoffs and is one win away from avenging last season’s East finals, when Boston eliminated Miami in seven games.

“We got the matchup we wanted,” Martin said after Sunday’s win over the Celtics. “We got to see the team who took us out last year. Nothing like a second crack at it. We’re playing like we have something to prove. We’re a bunch of guys with a chip on our shoulder.”

The Celtics made a change to their starting lineup, but it didn’t matter.

After opening the second half of Game 2 with guard Derrick White in forward Robert Williams’ spot, the Celtics stuck with that small lineup to open Game 3. White began Sunday’s contest alongside Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Al Horford.

This change wasn’t a huge surprise, considering Boston’s starting unit with Williams was outscored by 16 points in 13 minutes together in the first two games of the series.

Meanwhile, the lineup with White in Williams’ spot outscored the Heat by seven points in 11 minutes together in Game 2.

But the results weren’t positive in Game 3. The Smart-White-Brown-Tatum-Horford unit was outscored by five points in 10 minutes together on Sunday.

The Celtics’ two stars struggled.

Tatum finished with just 14 points on 6-of-18 shooting from the field and 1-of-7 shooting from three-point range. He has yet to make a field goal in the fourth quarter during the East finals.

Brown recorded 12 points on 6-of-17 shooting from the field and 0-of-7 shooting from three-point range.

The Heat’s starting lineup didn’t play much together in Game 3 because of an injury to forward Kevin Love.

Sunday marked the 11th time in the last 12 playoff games that the Heat has opened with the Vincent-Max Strus-Butler-Love-Adebayo combination. The only time Miami didn’t start this lineup during that stretch was when Butler missed Game 2 of the second round against the New York Knicks because of a sprained ankle.

But this group only played the first 4:47 of Sunday’s game before Love hobbled back to the locker room with a left ankle injury.

Love eventually returned to the Heat’s bench in his uniform and was putting up shots with his teammates as they warmed up for the second half. But Love never re-entered the game.

Martin started the second half in Love’s place, as the Heat took a cautious approach and never put Love back in the game.

“We’ll find out,” Spoelstra said when asked about Love’s injury after the game. “He says he’s fine. He was a little bit, like, scared about it. He said he probably could have gone in in the second half, but I just wanted to re-evaluate. We were up 15. I was like, all right, let’s make sure we know what’s going on.”

The Heat’s preferred playoff starting unit with Love has been a big positive this postseason, as the group entered Game 3 on Sunday outscoring opponents by 10 points per 100 possessions in 158 minutes together during this year’s playoffs

The Heat improved to 10-1 in the playoffs when using the Vincent-Strus-Butler-Love-Adebayo starting lineup.

The Heat’s bench continues to dominate teams in the playoffs.

The Heat went with its usual bench rotation of Kyle Lowry, Martin, Cody Zeller and Robinson in Game 3 and it produced positive results again.

Before the teams emptied their benches in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s lopsided game, the Heat’s reserves combined to outscore the Celtics’ bench 31-14 in the first three quarters led by the performances of Martin and Robinson.

This has been a trend throughout the postseason, as the Heat’s bench has combined to outscore the opponent’s reserves 505-345 during this year’s playoffs.

The Heat closed the regular season with the NBA’s sixth-lowest scoring bench at 29.8 points per game, but the bench unit has been a big strength in the playoffs. The Heat’s reserves have combined to average 36.1 points per game this postseason.

To win the series, the Celtics need to do something no other team has done before.

No NBA team has ever rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win a best-of-7 series.

The Heat is one win away from clinching its seventh NBA Finals appearance in franchise history and sixth NBA Finals appearance in the last 13 seasons.

The Heat is also one win away from becoming just the second No. 8 seed in league history to advance to the NBA Finals. The Knicks are the only other team to pull that off as an eighth seed before losing to the San Antonio Spurs in the championship series in 1999 after a lockout-shortened regular season.

A No. 8 seed has never won an NBA title.

“We just want to win,” Vincent said. “Our goal has never changed. Ups and downs, year-in, year-out, the Miami Heat are trying to compete for a title, and this year is no different.”

The Denver Nuggets are in the same position in their series on the other side of the bracket, leading the Los Angeles Lakers 3-0 in the Western Conference finals.

If the Heat and Nuggets meet in the NBA Finals, Denver would have home-court advantage.

The Heat lost both regular-season matchups against the Nikola Jokic-led Nuggets and has struggled against Denver in recent years. The Heat has dropped six straight games and 11 of its previous 13 meetings against the Nuggets dating back to the 2016-17 season.

Game 1 of the NBA Finals is June 1. So if the Heat wins Game 4 on Tuesday to complete the sweep, it would have eight days off before opening the championship series.