NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: HEAT VS. CELTICS

May 19, 2023

Jimmy Butler

Miami Heat

Game 2: Postgame

Miami Heat 111, Boston Celtics 105

Q. Jimmy, after last game, you saw some doubles and you were able to make plays off those doubles. Tonight, when did you get the sense they were not going to send as much help, and did you see it as an opportunity to create more shots for yourself?

JIMMY BUTLER: Yes. I was trying to play the right way the entire game. And then, I felt like in the fourth, it's all about getting a bucket. Whether you're taking a contested shot, a wide-open shot, it's all about getting shots on goal.

I can only tell y'all so many times how much confidence that my teammates put in me, the coaching staff puts in me to just go out there and hoop, play care-free and, as we like to say in our locker room, take us there.

Q. Before you got up here, we had been talking about Grant Williams and what happened there in the fourth quarter, and Bam even suggested that you occasionally start things like that to just kind of get yourself going. Can you tell us what happened in the moment there, and did it fuel you down the stretch?

JIMMY BUTLER: Yes, it did. But that's just competition at its finest. He hit a big shot. Started talking to me; I like that. I'm all for that. It makes me key in a lot more. It pushes that will that I have to win a lot more. It makes me smile. It does. When people talk to me, I'm like, okay, I know I'm a decent player, if you want to talk to me out of everybody that you can talk to.

But it's just competition. I do respect him, though. He's a big part of what they try to do. He switches. He can shoot the ball. I just don't know if I'm the best person to talk to (laughter).

Q. So Jimmy, Grant wasn't the answer, was he, to the Jimmy Butler problem?

JIMMY BUTLER: No. Mm-mmm. He wasn't.

Q. That's what the end of that postgame was about, the reference?

JIMMY BUTLER: That's not what it's about. But I think so many guys played well for us tonight. Caleb was huge, as was Bam. I just think we played high energy. And everybody is going to focus in on that, but that's for sure not the reason why we won the game.

I think what Caleb did tonight was incredible in keeping us in the game. You can't leave him. He's on everybody's scouting report. He does everything that you ask him to do. And then Bam was Bam, rebounding, passing the ball, scoring the ball.

And then I made some shots late. That's the ballgame.

Q. One last one, can you tell us about the song you were listening to on the way in here?

JIMMY BUTLER: Morgan Wallen, "Somebody's Problem." It's a hit in the locker room right now. But honestly speaking, I think I'm kind of like the deejay, so I get to pick and choose what we listen to. If it's not him, it's Dermot Kennedy. Might be some gospel in there, who knows.

Q. Fourth-quarter execution, both here and Game 2, and also in Game 1, they seemed to be very much out of rhythm. You're disrupting them, turning the ball over, and you guys seemed pretty comfortable and confident in the offensive end. What's key to both of those elements?

JIMMY BUTLER: Honestly, they just missed some shots. That's part of the game. I think our game plan is kind of simple in the fourth quarter, if I'm being brutally honest. It's kind of like give me the ball and move, and I'm tasked with making the right play. Sometimes I shoot the ball. Most of the times I shoot the ball. A lot of times it's pass to the open guy. I pride myself on finding that open guy, I really do.

I want to get all my teammates involved. And I've never been a guy to say that the player that I am today isn't because of my teammates. It's always because of them. They always make shots. It makes my job so much easier. If I get beat on defense, somebody is always there. I have so much faith in this group of guys that we have.

I've said it all year long, we are going to ride with one another until the wheels fall off.

Q. Because of that, do you feel like you have a mental edge on them at this point?

JIMMY BUTLER: I don't think so. I think we are so worried about us as a team, us as a unit, that we don't -- it's not like we don't focus on them, because we do. We talk about everything that they do, but at the end of the day we have to be the best version of ourselves. We have to believe in one another. We have to go out there and compete together and withstand the runs that they will go on and be able to make runs of our own. At the end of the day, we are going to always live with the result because we did it together.

Q. You talked through the years here about the confidence everybody pours into you and everybody pours into everybody else. Why is the belief so strong within that no matter what the situation is in a game that you guys will find a way to win?

JIMMY BUTLER: We see it every day in practice. On off-days, guys are constantly working on their game. Guys are constantly studying film. Guys just want to win. At the end of the day, that's all anybody wants on this roster.

If you ask them to do something, as long as it's for winning, they are going to do it. Nobody on this roster is dumb. So they can tell whenever it's about winning and whenever you're telling them something, because the end goal is winning.

And then more than anything, like I always say, man, we in this thing together. We love it that way, and we'll continue to play that way and have fun while we're doing it.

Q. You finished seventh-best record in the East, No. 8 seed, but there's been sort of that will all along. Do you expect this --

JIMMY BUTLER: Didn't you ask me that already?

Q. When you reach a point like this now at 2-0 in the series, maybe other people are talking about a surprise in the series; your thought on that?

JIMMY BUTLER: We don't care. We never have. We never will. We know what we're capable of. We going to be in this thing until the end together, good, bad, indifferent. We are who we are. We are where we are, and we are going to continue to fight together.