How did Heat view fallout from Martin’s hard foul on Tatum? ‘It was an irrational assessment’

The two-day break ahead of Game 2 between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics was filled with a conversation about a play that happened with the Celtics already ahead by 16 points and less than a minute to play in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.

With the Celtics already on their way to the series-opening win on Sunday, Heat forward Caleb Martin crashed the offensive glass after a missed shot from Heat center Bam Adebayo. Instead, Martin collided with Jayson Tatum and the Celtics’ All-Star forward crashed to the court with 59.4 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

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Martin immediately attempted to help Tatum up in an effort to play peacemaker, but he was shoved aside by Celtics forward Jaylen Brown. Double technicals were called on Martin and Brown, but the foul was not ruled flagrant by the officials.

While Tatum walked away seemingly unscathed and Martin appeared to slap hands respectfully with Tatum a few possessions later, the conversation surrounding Martin’s hard foul escalated after the game when Celtics television analyst and former NBA big man Brian Scalabrine labeled it a “dirty play.” Scalabrine also accused Heat coach Erik Spoelstra of issuing a “code red” during a late-game timeout to commit the physical foul on one of the Celtics’ All-Stars.

“I don’t even think it’s worth addressing,” Spoelstra said before Tuesday’s practice in Boston ahead of Game 2 on Wednesday at TD Garden (7 p.m., Bally Sports Sun and TNT). “I get it. Everybody gets emotional. You ask fans on one side how they view they play, you ask fans on our side on how they view they play and you’re going to get two totally different viewpoints on that. But that’s the playoffs. That’s the fun part also for fan bases. It was an irrational assessment from our view of what actually happened.”

As for Martin, he made clear on Tuesday that he “would never try to hurt somebody.”

“Anybody who knows me, I don’t feel the need to try to take out guys in order to beat somebody,” Martin said. “The first thing I did was turn around and check if he was OK. If I was trying to take somebody out, I would have just kept walking away. That’s just not who I am. It’s the playoffs. Hard fouls happen all the time.

“If anybody watches it, I clearly got pushed into him. I was going for a putback dunk and the push changed the trajectory. Stuff just happens.”

But Martin wasn’t surprised that his hard foul drew scrutiny from Celtics supporters.

“It’s that time of year when things get amplified and everybody likes to try to have a say in something,” Martin said. “It’s just that time of the year. Anything that’s done wrong or hard fouls happen to certain people, they’re going to be made out to you’re trying to take guys out and stuff like that. So that’s just what comes with this time of the year. So I’m not tripping.”

With Game 2 approaching, the Heat’s focus is on what’s ahead rather than what happened in the past.

“All the outside noise or anything like that is not going to decide this series or the game,” Spoelstra said. “This is good, clean, tough, physical playoff basketball and it always has been with Boston. It’s not going over the top. The league doesn’t need to look into anything more on either side, put extra eyes on it. This is just tough competitive basketball.”

ROBINSON STILL LIMITED

Three-point shooting forward Duncan Robinson is back for the Heat, but he’s still limited by the back injury that sidelined him for five straight games in late March and the final four games of the regular season.

“I probably won’t feel totally myself until I get an extended, extended rest,” Robinson said Tuesday. “But yeah, that’s what this time of year calls for.”

Robinson averaged 12.9 points per game while shooting 39.5 percent on seven three-point attempts per game in 28 minutes per game this regular season.

But in his first two games back from injury, Robinson played just 12 minutes in Friday’s play-in tournament win over the Chicago Bulls and only 15 minutes in Sunday’s Game 1 loss to the Celtics. He has combined to shoot 3 of 7 from three-point range in those two games.

“Just kind of day-by-day like Spo said,” Robinson said of his status. “Just trying to get to a point where I can be as available as I can based off of the situation and just how I’m feeling and just doing whatever I can to give whatever minutes that I can give to the team.”

How far is Robinson from being 100 percent healthy?

“I’m not here to give a percentage or say that I’m feeling this way versus that way,” Robinson, 30, said. “If I’m available, I’m available. Obviously, the other team is not going easy on me because I don’t feel whatever. So if I’m out there, I’m doing whatever I can to the best of my ability. But that’s just what this time of year calls for.”

THIS AND THAT

▪ The Celtics took 12 more threes and made 10 more threes than the Heat on Sunday to outscore Miami 66-36 from three-point range.

How does the Heat plan to keep up with the Celtics’ season-long prolific three-point shooting in this series? A balance between taking more threes, but also taking some three-point opportunities away from the Celtics.

“I understand the math to it. I do,” Spoelstra said. “I mean, you don’t want to lose 30 points in a certain area. We shot more threes last game. We still left some on the table. I don’t know if we’ll end up shooting 49. So there’s going to have to be some kind of balance, bringing their number down a little bit. We’re not going to bring their threes down to 25, that’s not realistic. And we’re not going to shoot 50. But there is a balance there, where there’s a line where we can take a few more and hopefully get them off a few more.”

▪ With the Celtics’ roster featuring multiple elite perimeter defenders who they can throw at Heat guard Tyler Herro, Spoelstra said the team “needs to get a little bit more intentional in our actions to shake him free.”

Herro struggled to make shots in Game 1, finishing Sunday’s loss with 11 points on 4-of-13 shooting from the field and 3-of-9 shooting on threes.

▪ The Heat again ruled out Jimmy Butler (right knee MCL sprain), Josh Richardson (right shoulder surgery) and Terry Rozier (neck spasms) for Game 2 on Wednesday. The rest of the Heat’s roster is expected to be available.