BOSTON — The day before his shorthanded Miami Heat sought to even the score with the heavily favored Celtics, head coach Erik Spoelstra made an interesting comment about his team's identity.
After being deluged by Boston's 3-point shooting in Game 1 of the first-round series, Spoelstra said his team needed to do a better job of letting it fly in order to keep pace.
«I understand the math of it,» Spoelstra said, before adding, «We're not going to shoot 50 of them. That's not realistic.»
Maybe 50 wasn't quite realistic. But the upset-minded Heat did just fine with 43 attempts Wednesday night. And by finishing with a playoff franchise-record 23 3-pointers, the Heat beat the Celtics 111-101 on the road in Game 2 to even the series at 1-1.
The series moves to Miami for Game 3 on Saturday.
The sheer nature of Wednesday night's upset is one of the reasons Game 2's outcome was remarkable. Miami trailed by as much as 34 in Game 1, prompting many to believe that, without star wing Jimmy Butler or starter Terry Rozier, this would be a four-game sweep.
Instead, the Heat became the first playoff team in the past 30 years to win by double-digits despite being an underdog of 14 points or more.
«We've been doubted a lot through our playoff runs, people saying we couldn't do a lot of stuff that we [eventually] did,» said Miami big man Bam Adebayo, who had 21 points and 10 boards on 9-of-13 shooting. «So for me and my team, why lose belief now? Our backs are against the wall. Everybody's against us. So just use that as fuel.… Our guys believe we can win. So let's make it mano-a-mano — a cage fight. Let's hoop.»
Miami's ability to shapeshift into a 3-point gunning team one game after being torched from there by a five-out, floor-spacing
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