NBA FINALS: LAKERS VS. HEAT

October 1, 2020

Jimmy Butler

Miami Heat

Practice Day

Q. Jimmy, all year you guys have had a really tough-minded group that's pulled through a lot of things together. Is there any particular message after, not just the game yesterday, but also with a couple of guys now being banged up?

JIMMY BUTLER: Just to stay calm. I think that there was a lot of nerves because it was the first time any of us have been in the Finals. I mean, obviously besides Spo, OG [Udonis Haslem] and Dre [Andre Iguodala]. But knowing we may be a couple men down, other guys are going to have to step up in a big way. I'm really, really excited to see how we bounce back, but I think we're capable of it.

Q. What's it been like for you to go through Game 1, not have it end the way you want, find out Goran is hurt, now Bam has a neck thing. How tough has it been on you?

JIMMY BUTLER: They say when it's bad -- when it rains, it pours. All in all, though, we're still expected to win. We got here for a reason. We realize we belong. But we also realize how well we have to play on both ends of the floor to give ourselves a chance to win.

Obviously we definitely need those two guys, don't get me wrong. But I've always said, next man up when a man goes down, and right now we're definitely going to have to do that.

But I think it's tough to lose. Your mind is moving at a thousand miles per hour, obviously you're not sleeping. But it's just because we all care. We all want to win. We all want to be champions.

Q. How is your ankle feeling today, and what's your approach overall in trying to play through pain?

JIMMY BUTLER: Just find a way to win when it comes to it. If you can go, try to go. If you can't, you just can't. That's just the way that the game goes sometimes.

As far as I am right now, I'm okay. It's like I always say, nobody cares, as long as I suit up and go out there and compete. I'm expected to produce and try to help win. If I suit up, which I will, we got to win the game.

Q. Kind of two questions: One, how did the Lakers' physicality do you think affect Game 1? And secondly, what has happened throughout this year that gives you confidence in this group that they can withstand this level of adversity?

JIMMY BUTLER: I mean, I think they imposed their will and they were the tougher team. They played the style of basketball that they wanted to play. We got away from our type of basketball, and I think it definitely played into their hands. You're talking about adversity; I mean, for us, we thrive in that. I say it all the time, I mean, if you look at it, everybody probably thought they was going to do that to us anyways. They probably think they're going to do it to us three more times in a row. I beg to differ.

Nobody picked us to be here. Like I said, we embrace it. We love it. But we know that we can win. We do. But we know that we've got to play perfect, man. We know we can't not rebound and not get back.

So coming into Game 2, all the adversity, backs against the wall, yadda, yadda, yadda, we got to win.

Q. The Lakers have been up and down from the outside this postseason. Last night they started off the game 11-for-17 from three. If you've had a chance to digest the tape or look back at it, were they just a team that got hot or was there something about your defensive coverage that was lacking?

JIMMY BUTLER: We just didn't make them miss. They weren't uncomfortable in any way, shape or form. They threw the ball where they wanted to throw the ball. They got to where they wanted to get to on the floor. That's not the way we're supposed to play as an organization, as a team. The Miami Heat is supposed to be way more physical, way more tough. And if you give a team with that much talent that type of confidence, good luck. So, moving forward, we have got to switch that up.

Q. The response that's necessary during those runs, I know mostly has to do with defense, but if the Lakers get on those types of runs, is there a proper offensive response so that it's not those massive gaps of whatever it was, 11-1, 13-0, whatever?

JIMMY BUTLER: I feel like all year long we've always scored enough points to put ourselves in a position to win. I think it's always going to come down to getting a stop and then cutting the water off on the defensive end. But if we're not making shots, I think our defense tends to trickle in the way of it's not being very good. If we are making shots, we seem to get stops. I think it should be the other way around, though, letting our defense dictate our offense. I think that's how we have to play in the series. I feel like when we've played that way all year long, we're pretty good.

Q. I was just wondering, you guys have talked a lot about how being in the bubble has brought you guys closer as a team and just why you guys like the bubble so much. Why is it that that has brought you guys so close? And do you think you draw on that now with all the adversity you've faced?

JIMMY BUTLER: We're going to have to. We really do enjoy being around one another. We really do care about each other. Obviously, we want to win, so we care about that, as well. But we're going to need everybody to be clear in the mind going into Game 2 and all these other games because we're going to need everybody so locked in and so focused.

I think we care enough to be able to tell each other the truth when somebody is not doing what they're supposed to be doing, knowing that we're around each other so much, ain't nobody going to tell nobody no lie. We can tell when something is bothering you.

As long as we're in each other's corners like we have been all year long, we're going to need that moving forward. Being here in the bubble just suits us because we like being around one another.

Q. Just curious if you were able to talk to Goran last night or this morning, and did you get a sense of his mindset? Obviously difficult for him to be going through this personally.

JIMMY BUTLER: Yeah, I talk to Goran all the time. That's my guy. It's just tough to see him in this position because he cares about the game, cares about his teammates, and he really wants to win. Obviously, we want him out there with us. We know that we need him. He's been huge for us in the playoffs all year long in the sense of doing whatever he was asked to do, come off the bench, start, score, facilitate, whatever. But it's bigger than basketball. We care about him as a person. We want him to be right.

I can talk to him as much as I can, but you can hear that pain in his voice, of him feeling like that he may have let us down, but he did not, and I want him to know that. He's carried us to this point, and it's only our duty to pay that back to him right now.