With season at stake, neither history nor health favor Heat

9:27 AM ET

MIAMI — Joe Johnson thought he could simply walk away.

As the reality of facing the brink of playoff elimination spread through the Miami Heat’s locker room the other night in Toronto, Johnson quietly brushed his hair, dressed in his typical Brand Jordan gear, splashed on cologne and gathered his belongings.

He spun around, took a step toward the door and was stopped in his tracks once the light from a television camera flashed into his eyes. Mired in a 1-for-17 shooting slump from 3-point range against Toronto, nothing is coming easy for Johnson and his team in this series.

Not even a path toward the nearest exit.

“I have no idea,” Johnson said of the source of his shooting struggles. “I have to just keep trying to be aggressive and make plays on both ends. That’s it.”

Unlike Johnson, the Heat can delay facing some difficult questions as an offseason of potential major change looms with seven pending free agents on the roster. That reality only increases the urgency Miami carries into Game 6 on Friday, needing a win at home to force a seventh and decisive game on Sunday in Toronto for the chance to meet Cleveland in the Eastern Conference finals.

Neither history nor health favor the Heat at this stage of a brutal series that has been marred by major injuries to both teams, stagnant offense and outcomes decided in overtime in three of the five games. For the second time this postseason, Miami is down 3-2 and needs to win out to move on. No team in NBA history has come back twice from that deficit in the postseason to win a seven-game series. Teams that own a 3-2 series lead advance 85-percent of the time.

Miami’s Erik Spoelstra is one of the more analytically sound coaches in the NBA, but has no interest in crunching those daunting numbers that define the odds against his team. Key injuries will also have a significant impact on Miami’s options entering Game 6.

In a …

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