MIAMI -- The Miami Heat always believes it has enough to compete. But the question the Heat faces at the moment is does it have enough to win its first-round playoff series against the loaded Boston Celtics?

Already playing without its best player in Jimmy Butler (sprained MCL) and another important starter in Terry Rozier (neck spasms), the Heat is also missing the usual production from two other vital pieces. Duncan Robinson is available but has been limited by his lingering back injury and Kevin Love is available but has had his minutes cut in the series because of an unfavorable matchup.

“We have our guys, we have enough to get the job done,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra again emphasized after Saturday night’s ugly 104-84 loss to the Celtics at Kaseya Center in Game 3 of their series. “We understand the challenge and that’s what our competitors love about this series. We know we have to play hard and we also have to play well.”

The short-handed Heat did not play well enough on Saturday, as the Celtics dominated Game 3 to regain home-court advantage and take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 playoff series.

The Celtics pulled ahead by as many as 29 points in the blowout victory, holding the Heat to just 84 points on 41.6 percent shooting from the field and 9-of-28 (32.1 percent) shooting from three-point range. The Heat’s 84 points on Saturday marked the fewest points it has scored in any game since the 2022 Eastern Conference finals.

“I don’t think we really brought that dog tonight like we did in Game 2, where we set the tone from the jump,” Heat All-Star center Bam Adebayo said. “We didn’t do that [Saturday]. So obviously, when you don’t have that type of dog mentality, you can get blown out by 20.”

But as the Heat gathered for a film session on Sunday ahead of Game 4 on Monday at Kaseya Center (7:30 p.m., Bally Sports Sun and TNT), the reality is Miami is facing an incredibly steep uphill battle against one of the NBA’s top teams while essentially missing four irreplaceable players.

▪ Butler, who is the Heat’s best player and led the team in points per game and assists per game this regular season, missed his fourth straight game on Saturday because of a knee injury. After Butler sprained his MCL during the Heat’s play-in tournament loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on April 17, the Heat announced he would miss “several weeks.”

“I don’t know about a timeline, but we’ve been working,” Butler said as part of an interview with TNT’s Chris Haynes during the network’s broadcast of Saturday’s game. “I want to hoop. I want to get out here. I want some of this.”

Butler remains out for Game 4 on Monday.

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