After Game 1 loss, Heat working to solve difficult math problem vs. Celtics. Is there a solution?

The Miami Heat will spend the next few days in Boston trying to figure out a math problem.

That math problem was a big problem for the Heat in Game 1 against the Boston Celtics, as the top-seeded Celtics finished with a huge 66-36 edge from three-point range to crush the eighth-seeded Heat 114-94 on Sunday afternoon at TD Garden and take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-7 first-round playoff series. Teams are now 13-95 this season when being outscored by 30 or more points on threes.

Celtics crush Butler-less Heat to take Game 1. Takeaways and details from a rough day for Heat

That gap was even wider before the Heat shot 7 of 9 on threes in the fourth quarter. The Celtics outscored the Heat 57-15 from behind the arc through the first three quarters to enter the fourth quarter with a 32-point lead.

The Celtics shot 12 more threes and made 10 more threes than the Heat in Game 1, finishing 22 of 49 (44.9 percent) from deep. The Celtics’ 22 made threes on Sunday tied their franchise record for a playoff game, and it marked just the third time in franchise history that the Heat has allowed 22 or more three-point makes in a playoff game.

Miami shot just 12 of 37 (32.4 percent) from three-point range in Game 1.

“We kind of expected them to shoot that many threes,” Heat forward Nikola Jovic said. “The whole season, I think they averaged 43 threes. We come into the game and you try to be physical and every single mistake you make, they’re shooting that thing and they’re shooting it at great percentages.”

The question entering Wednesday’s Game 2 in Boston (7 p.m., Bally Sports Sun and TNT) is: How can the Heat tilt some of the math in its favor?

“I think we got to shoot it,” Jovic said. “We had a lot of shots that we just passed up with a shot fake and a drive, and we probably overdid it a little too much where we were open a lot of times.”

Shooting more threes would help the Heat, but getting in a three-point shootout with the Celtics isn’t ideal either. Boston finished the regular season averaging a league-high 42.5 three-point shot attempts per game while also recording the NBA’s second-best team three-point percentage at 38.8 percent.

A better answer might be to find a way to limit the Celtics’ three-point opportunities. But that won’t be easy, considering the Heat’s defense tends to allow a lot of three-point looks because it’s built to deter players from getting inside the paint and the Celtics essentially only play lineups that feature five quality three-point shooters.

Among the eight players who the Celtics used in Game 1, all of them attempted four or more three-point attempts. Kristaps Porzingis, Derrick White and Sam Hauser each made a team-high four threes for Boston; Jaylen Brown hit three threes; Jrue Holiday, Payton Pritchard and Al Horford each made two threes; and Jayson Tatum hit one three.

“They’re a volume three-point shooting team that gets a lot of threes up per game and that’s their game plan,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said. “For us, just watching the film and coming up with new or different ways to limit their open threes and who we’re giving their threes to. They are all shooters and they can all shoot the ball, but just trying to force them into tough twos and get them off the line a little bit.”

Probably the best and most realistic solution for the Heat is a combination of both strategies — taking more threes while trying to take some threes away from the Celtics to close the gap.

After Game 1 on Sunday, multiple Heat players spoke about passing up on too many open threes. As a result, the three-point trigger will probably be quicker for Miami in Game 2 on Wednesday to get more attempts up.

“I think that there are some three-point looks that we passed up that turned into some worse shots at times,” Heat forward Caleb Martin. “But I think overall we got good looks, we just didn’t knock some of them down. I think we passed up opportunities, which you can’t with a team like that. You got to capitalize on moments that you have and opportunities. We’ll just continue to get better, step into those and shoot them with confidence.”

Instead of capitalizing on clean three-point looks, the Heat took 31 non-rim two-pointers in Game 1 — typically considered an inefficient shot compared to rim and three-point attempts. Boston took only 17 of those midrange looks on Sunday.

The Celtics’ defensive game plan was one of the driving forces behind the Heat’s less-than-ideal shot diet in Game 1, sending single coverage at Heat center Bam Adebayo and keeping defenders on the Heat’s outside shooters. That led to Adebayo taking a team-high 18 field-goal attempts in Game 1.

Adebayo has upped his three-point volume recently, but most of his shots still come from the midrange. Sunday was no different, with 15 of his 18 shots falling in the non-paint two category.

“You have to give them credit for taking us out of some things,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the Celtics’ defense. “I think they’re willing to live with some of those 1-on-1s to be able to keep bodies on our other guys. So we’ll just have to find out the best plan to get everybody in rhythm. I love Bam when he’s aggressive like that and I also love him as a playmaker. We’re going to probably need it at all levels for the rest of the series.”

Creating extra opportunities with offensive rebounds, generating easy points at the foul line and forcing the Celtics into turnovers would also help the Heat mitigate its three-point disadvantage. Boston going cold from three-point range is also a possibility, but probably not one that’s going to happen four times in a seven-game series.

Or maybe the Heat simply doesn’t have the offensive firepower available to close the three-point gap in this series, with top offensive weapons such as Jimmy Butler (sprained MCL) and Terry Rozier (neck spasms) out. Also, Heat three-point shooting forward Duncan Robinson is far from his usual self after recently returning from a back injury.

After all, there’s a reason why the Celtics enter the series as heavy favorites, covered a 14-point spread in Game 1 and opened as huge 15.5-point favorites over the Heat in Game 2. And there’s a reason why the Celtics finished the regular season with the NBA’s top-ranked offensive rating and the Heat ended the regular season with the 21st-ranked offensive rating.

But one thing is for sure, the Heat needs to find a solution to this math problem fast to make this series competitive. NBA teams that fall behind 2-0 in a best-of-7 playoff series have gone on to lose the series 92.1 percent (314-27) of the time.

“We know we’re going into this with people doubting us and people not believing in us,” Adebayo said. “But the guys in that locker room believe. As long as the guys in the locker room and coaching staff believe, we always have a chance.”