The Miami Heat were not expected to be competitive in their first round series against the Boston Celtics this year, as the rematch of last year’s Eastern Conference Finals featured the two teams in very different situations. Boston, the East’s top seed, has their full squad healthy and boasted the NBA’s best record. Miami, who got the 8-seed through the Play-In for the second year in a row, is without star Jimmy Butler due to a knee sprain and is also missing their biggest in season acquisition, as Terry Rozier has a neck injury.
Despite all of that, the Heat were able to go into Boston and steal homecourt advantage with a stunning performance in Game 2, setting a franchise record for made threes in a playoff game. After that game, Jimmy Butler trolled the Celtics on Instagram, and clearly enjoyed seeing his teammates continue the tradition of torturing this Boston team without him.
However, in the days since that win there has been almost no conversation about Miami regarding that win, as the focus has been entirely on the Celtics and what they do and don’t need to adjust to. It was a wild shooting night from the Heat, and there are only so many adjustments they can make given their personnel, so it does make sense that most of the analysis was on what Boston should do differently going forward. Butler, unsurprisingly, didn’t appreciate that and he spoke with TNT’s Chris Haynes during the first quarter of Game 3 in Miami (debuting his latest hairstyle in the process), making clear he was “tired” of hearing about Boston after Miami’s tremendous performance and stated for the record that the Heat were about to go up 2-1.
"If I gotta hear one more praise about Boston on national tv when we win a game, I'm tired of hearing that, man." 🍿@ChrisBHaynes caught up with Jimmy Butler during Game 3 pic.twitter.com/UcmHLjEHXS
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) April 27, 2024
It’s what you’d expect Jimmy to say to that question, and I never fault athletes for expressing their confidence even in the face of dire odds from an objective standpoint. They should feel that way, and Butler also has a message to deliver to his teammates that even without him, getting one win isn’t the goal, it’s to win the series. Unfortunately for Butler’s prediction, the Heat came out and could only muster 12 first quarter points as the shooting from Game 2 did not carry over early in Miami.
