‘Disrespect’ or sound strategy? Whatever it is, Heat’s Caleb Martin is ready for it

The beauty of facing the same team in the conference finals in back-to-back seasons and three of the last four seasons is there aren’t many surprises.

So Miami Heat forward Caleb Martin entered the Eastern Conference finals with an idea of how the Boston Celtics would defend him, and he was right. Similar to last season’s conference finals, the Celtics helped off Martin late in Game 1 on Wednesday to have an extra defender around the paint in hopes of slowing Heat stars Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler.

The result: Martin was left open beyond the arc during a few important moments in the Heat’s Game 1 win in Boston

“It’s definitely a sign of disrespect,” Martin said ahead of Game 2 of the East finals on Friday night at TD Garden. “But people have game plans and schemes, and you live with the result. So that’s just part of their scheme and part of my scheme is being confident and letting it go. They adjust and I adjust to the adjustments.”

As Celtics wing Jaylen Brown sagged off Martin and into the paint to help on an Adebayo post-up, Adebayo found an open Martin on the perimeter. But Martin didn’t take the three, he instead took advantage of Brown’s frantic closeout to drive into the paint for a layup to put the Heat ahead by eight points with 8:49 left in the fourth quarter.

Then as Celtics guard Marcus Smart floated away from Martin to provide help on a Butler paint attack, Butler found Martin for an open corner three. Martin took advantage to hit the catch-and-shoot three, giving the Heat a seven-point lead with 2:10 to play.

“The more reps you get and the more times you see that coverage, you learn from it,” Martin said. “You understand that the worst thing you can do is be hesitant. So for the most part, when you’re confident and you’re doing things off the catch and not hesitating, good things will happen.”

According to the numbers, the Celtics’ decision to help off Martin is questionable. Not only does he have the athleticism to attack a closeout and finish at the rim, but he entered Friday shooting an efficient 44.7 percent on 3.2 catch-and-shoot threes per game in the playoffs.

Among players on teams still alive in the playoffs who have attempted at least three catch-and-shoot threes per game this postseason, only Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves has made a higher percentage (47.3 percent) of those shots.

But in the regular season, Martin shot just 33.3 percent on catch-and-shoot threes.

“Last year in the playoffs, they were helping off,” Martin said of the Celtics. “It was pretty much the same coverage. The only way you get them to respect you and to not help and to continue to give Jimmy space is just by knocking down shots.

“Being able to get this matchup again, I kind of have a mentality that the coverage is going to be the same. I definitely want to make sure, like I’ve been working on my game and getting more confident all season and all summer, so I was definitely waiting for another crack at the opportunity.”

Martin, who was re-signed by the Heat to a fully guaranteed three-year deal worth $20.4 million as a restricted free agent last summer, knows what to expect from the Celtics’ defense this series and he feels he’s more prepared than ever to combat it.

“He’s a super competitive edgy guy, which we like,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We relate to that, and that’s allowed him to be a very good defender for us. But he has an offensive package and if the game plan is to give him open shots, he can make the right play to make you pay for that. It’s not always a three. He makes those big timely ones, and then he also is a very good catch-and-go guy.”

DOES IT MATTER?

While some may say the Heat’s playoff success as a No. 8 seed this year is an example of why the regular season doesn’t matter as much as it used to, Spoelstra disagrees.

“I really don’t like that narrative that it only matters in the playoffs,” Spoelstra said. “I think we’re a perfect example of the opposite of that. We were in that struggle fighting for our competitive lives for three straight months because of the play-in and because of all the adversity. We were not doing the typical stuff of like load managing or discounting games. We were doing whatever we had to do try to put ourselves in a position to win. I think you saw more of that league-wide and less of the other stuff.”

The Heat is just the second No. 8 seed in NBA history to advance to the conference finals.

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