NBA FINALS: LAKERS VS. HEAT

September 30, 2020

Jimmy Butler

Miami Heat

Game 1: Postgame

Los Angeles Lakers - 116, Miami Heat - 98

Q. You obviously played through it, but how is your ankle holding up after all this?

JIMMY BUTLER: A little bit sore. I'll be okay with some treatment. I'll get ready to go again. I think I got to be ready to go. So we'll see how it feels tomorrow, but I'm going to be fine.

Q. Can you talk about how every night this team can feature a different star, but now in the midst of uncertainty regarding the status of your teammates Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic, do you feel it's incumbent for you to take more of a role scoring the ball?

JIMMY BUTLER: I just take what the game gives me for the most part. I still have a lot of belief in all of my teammates, I will continually play that way. But, yeah, maybe so, maybe try to score a little bit more. But I still got to make sure that everybody else is getting their touches and getting the shots that they need, because we have been playing this way all year long and that's our formula to success.

Q. Part of what got away from you guys in the second quarter was the rebounding and obviously when they played both their bigs. How do you battle back?

JIMMY BUTLER: We just got to be tougher. We got to put up more of a fight. I don't think we did that. And then it doesn't help whenever we don't make shots. It's been that way all year long, whenever we start to miss a couple shots, we don't do what we're supposed to do on the other end.

So I think we should always think about letting our defense, for sure our rebounding, start it off for us and then hopefully we start to make shots.

Q. I know he's not your favorite Dragic brother, but you're very close with Goran, to watch him go down like that, to fight to stay out there, to want to come back in the game, to not be able to come back in the game, how do you support him? How do you let him lean on you right now?

JIMMY BUTLER: Just let him know that I and we are here for him. We know how much he wants to win, how much he wants to go to war and battle with us. Obviously we love him for that and we want him out there with us.

But whatever the doctor tells him to do, that's what he’s got to do. I understand that he wants to go out there and compete and obviously we want him out there with us. But he got to take care of himself first.

Q. K-Nunn went in there and played really well for you guys with those 18 points. Just how encouraging is that, especially for a guy who has been waiting and hungry and dying to get in there?

JIMMY BUTLER: That's what he does, he stayed ready, he's working on his game and he's in it to win it. Whenever his number and name's called, he's ready to play. He knows the schemes. And it looks like he's going to be in this rotation, I sure hope so, because he definitely showed what he can do on the big stage tonight.

Q. You guys have prided yourself all season as being a no-excuse team. What do you feel like you need to say to the rest of the group now knowing that you got two of your main guys down at least for a little bit?

JIMMY BUTLER: Nothing. We talk about how damn near perfect that we have to play, and that was nowhere near it. There's nothing to be said. We can watch all the film in the world, we understand, we know what we did not do, what we talked about we were going to do, we didn't do. We didn't rebound, we didn't make them miss any shots, we didn't get back, all of those things led to the deficit that we put ourselves in.

Q. Sorry to tell you this but there's a wide reporting now that Goran has a torn plantar fascia, so it's unlikely he would be able to return. So what does the team need to do now to rally with him unlikely to be back?

JIMMY BUTLER: Be ready to go with or without Goran. We're still expecting to win. We still know that we can. Like I said earlier, we want that guy out there with us. He's a big part of what we're trying to do, but until we can have him back, we got to go out there and we got to fight even harder. We got to try to cover up what he gives us and make up for it. We're capable of it. We have to be capable of it. Moving forward with or without Goran we better hurry up and tie it up 1-1.

Q. They kind of referenced it in the previous question but I also wanted to ask you about Kendrick Nunn, but not only Kendrick but also the rest of the supporting cast. We saw Solomon Hill get a few minutes today. D.J. got a few minutes today. In the absence of two of the main pieces of your starting lineup can you can you speak about the readiness of the supporting cast of the Miami Heat and how they stepped up tonight?

JIMMY BUTLER: They did well, they did great and we appreciate them for going out there and competing, knowing the schemes, knowing guys on the opposing team. But they know that. They know that any, any day, any quarter, any minute Coach could call on them and they're expected to produce and know what they're doing out there. But they're pros, they have been going about this the right way all year long, we're going to need those guys to really get back in this thing.