NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: CELTICS VS. HEAT

May 23, 2022

Jimmy Butler

Kyle Lowry

Miami Heat

Game 4: Postgame

Celtics 102, Heat 82

Q. As seasoned veterans of the playoffs, you've seen these before, maybe you've endured some of these before. What's the next step after one of these individually and then collectively as a team for both of you, please?

JIMMY BUTLER: I don't think we need to worry about individuals. I think we need to figure out how to win as a team. That's the most important thing: how to get stops as a team, how to score as a team and continue to do everything as a team.

KYLE LOWRY: I think we go get an airplane and go home and get recovery and look at the film the next day and get ready to play.

Q. What's the concern level on your knee and how has it impacted you the last two games?

JIMMY BUTLER: I'm straight. No excuse for how I played tonight. It don't got nothing to do with my knee. I've just got to be better. I will be better. I'm not too worried about it.

Q. Is there just no concern just because you all know what you can do as a team? You've obviously come back from losses before. So is there no real concern tonight even though obviously you're not thrilled with the result?

KYLE LOWRY: There's always concern how the game went about, but we can't dwell on what happened. We have to figure out how to get better, move on to the next situations. They came out and they played better than us tonight. They protected their home court. We didn't do what we wanted to do tonight.

Can't dwell on it too much. Let it hurt. Let it sting and move forward. Stay positive, because we still have another game in one day.

Q. As a team you only took three shots at the rim the first half. Was that something they were doing well or was the offense not really operating as intended?

JIMMY BUTLER: I think that's on us. We settled for too many mid-range jump shots, myself included. A lot of shots behind the three that weren't even good ones, at that.

Ain't nothing more than that. We need to move the ball around, get it to the open guy and let that guy make the play and live with what we get out of it. I think we've just got to be better.

Q. To that point, we don't know what's going to happen with Tyler over the next couple days. If he stays out, what do you have to do to get the offense in rhythm without him?

JIMMY BUTLER: Move the ball. Get it from one side to the other. Keep the game extremely simple. Whenever we tend to do that, we tend to play well.

When anybody tries to hit a home run and do it by themselves, we kind of get in trouble. Ball sticks. We turn the ball over. We take a bad shot. We just need to do everything together like we've been doing all year long. It will be on myself, on Kyle, on Bam to make sure that we make that happen.

Q. Is there anything you guys can do more to get to the foul line, which obviously then also helps you guys set your defense? Is there something they are doing specifically, not talking about officiating, but talking about playing style?

JIMMY BUTLER: I didn't say nothing to the sorts. Yeah, I think we just got to be more physical. Like I said, when you shoot a lot of jump shots, which we tended to do tonight, it's hard getting to the free-throw line. I think we have to be more of a forceful-type team, getting into the paint, not shying away from contact and playing from the inside out. Whenever we do that and not shoot as many jumpers, we might get fouled a little bit.