The Heat had the opportunity to close out their Eastern Conference finals matchup against the Celtics at home, but Boston had other plans and extended the series by defeating Miami in Game 4 on Tuesday night.
With Miami up 3-1 in the series, Heat forward Caleb Martin echoed what star Jimmy Butler believes, his team simply needs to put the first home loss of the playoffs behind them and focus on closing out the series on the road.
“Really, the biggest thing is putting this one behind us and understanding we got another one. That’s the good thing about having to go to four is that we got another one and have the opportunity to go play them at their place,” Martin told reporters, as seen on NBA.com’s postgame coverage. “So, that’s the good thing about the position that we’re in right now is we have the opportunity and just got to make sure we come correctly and go take care of business in Boston.”
Martin did acknowledge that the Celtics winning Game 4 at Kaseya Center was disappointing since the Celtics defeated Miami in seven games in last year’s Eastern Conference finals and celebrated on the Heat’s home court.
“It’s definitely disappointing. That would have been a perfect world, a perfect situation. But as you know, as we know, and everybody else knows, we don’t typically get things easy way over here,” Martin said. “This is right up our alley. This is the way it goes for us and guys like us, and I think it’s only gonna prepare us for the long run. This could be good for us.”
