For much of the playoffs, the stellar performances of the Miami Heat's unsung role players — or as Jimmy Butler would call them, his “teammates” — have been the talk of the town. After all, the likes of Caleb Martin (who almost won the Eastern Conference Finals MVP over Butler) and Max Strus went undrafted and yet there they were, playing like they were lottery picks. During the Heat's ECF tussle against the Celtics, Martin, in particular, was simply unconscious on the offensive end.

But in Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Denver Nuggets, Martin and Strus ran into the brick wall that is the law of averages.

In the Heat's 104-93 defeat, Caleb Martin and Max Strus combined to go 1-17 from the field (1-7 and 0-10, respectively). To put in greater perspective how terrible that is, Martin and Strus' terrible Game 1 performance is tied for the worst field-goal percentage in NBA Finals history by two teammates who both started the game, per Jorge Sedano of ESPN.

After scorching the nets during the ECF, seeing Martin (and, to a lesser extent, Strus) brick one shot after another was certainly an infuriating sight for Celtics fans. On Twitter, they couldn't help but wonder why this cold spell couldn't have come days earlier.

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Funnily enough, it was a pair of Celtics who previously owned the ignominious record on their own. Back in 2010, Ray Allen and Kendrick Perkins combined to go 1-17 as well, with Allen the chief culprit by missing all 13 of his shot attempts.

Nevertheless, given how well Caleb Martin and Max Strus have performed in the playoffs thus far, it's fair to wonder whether a bounce-back performance in Game 2 is in order. The Heat will certainly hope so; Martin's shot-making and pesky defense proved to be one of the key turning points that allowed the Heat to inch ever more closely to writing the storybook ending to their Cinderella story.

Even then, it seems like the Heat can turn towards yet another undrafted player to keep the machine rolling. Haywood Highsmith made shots late in Game 1, which, perhaps, puts him in line for a heavier workload in Game 2. But the Heat will need their ECF hero to wake up.