NBA EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: HEAT VS. CELTICS

May 27, 2023

Jimmy Butler

Miami Heat

Game 6: Postgame

Boston Celtics 104, Miami Heat 103

Q. Sports are replete with dramatic changes of emotions in a tick like that. Can you just take us through from the elation of seeing it called a three-shot foul, making the three shots and then that final Celtics sequence?

JIMMY BUTLER: Basketball for you. Basketball at its finest. Very, very, very entertaining. But that's good basketball. I think, I believe, as we all do, like you're going to get the same test until you pass it, I swear. We were in this same position last year. We can do it. I know that we will do it. We've got to go on the road and win in a very, very, very tough environment.

But we are capable of it. So let's get busy.

Q. You're all about staying even keel through the ups and the downs. How do you as a leader try to keep this team mentally in it after a loss like this?

JIMMY BUTLER: Let them know that as good or as bad as we played tonight, we still lost. So we still have got a job to do at the end of the day, and we will be in this thing together, home, away, on the road.

Like I told the guys on the bench, I told the guys in the locker room, that if I play better, we're not even in this position, honestly speaking. And I will be better. That's what makes me smile, because those guys follow my lead. So when I'm playing better, I think we're playing better as a whole.

Q. To follow up on that, that's obviously one of the craziest endings in the history of the game. How do you get everybody through the emotional hurdle of losing in the final second?

JIMMY BUTLER: I mean, I tell them, there ain't nothing you can do about it now. All you can do is move on.

But honestly, I'm proud of the guys to never give up, fight to the very end and giving us a chance to win this basketball game.

Didn't go our way. Part of it. It hasn't been our -- going our way a lot this year. So this is nothing new. We have got to go on the road and do something special. But we've got a special group, so why not it be us?

Q. It's been a long playoffs, maybe even given the nature of the series, longer than you expected. How did you continue to push through from a physical standpoint?

JIMMY BUTLER: We pride ourselves on being able to do that. I don't know the quote, but Spo probably does: the most well-conditioned, most professional, name it, we are all of that.

This is what we do every single day in the offseason and in the preseason, during the regular season for, is to be able to be tired and still figure out a way to win. Be tired and still be able to execute.

We have to be able to do that now, of all times. I think we will.

Q. Over the last few years, you've somehow been involved in some of the craziest playoff bounces, endings. Was there any part of you walking off the floor, like, I can't believe this is happening again?

JIMMY BUTLER: Nope. I've got to figure out a way. And the crazy part is, I don't got too much to do. We're going to do it as a unit, every single time. We are going to be in this thing together. I know that for a fact.

When we huddle up after the game, after a tough loss like this one, everybody is smiling because we know we're very capable of it, I'm telling you, and we are not going to let up. I'm not going to let anybody quit. I'm not going to let our guys quit. I don't give a damn what happens. We're going to go in there and we're going to win.

Q. Are a Nostradamus, because last year, May 29, 2022, you sat at this stage and said that, "We're going to get it done and what we have what it takes." Why do you still feel that way?

JIMMY BUTLER: Because we have some good basketball players on this team and have some good people that work hard and do things the right way and put the team first and want to win. At the end of the day, that's all you can ask for from anybody, especially my teammates.

And we have a great group. We have got some guys that don't quit. We got some guys that have had a long road to get to this point. So why give up now, you know? This is the stage that we are on. The stage is set. This is when the lights are the brightest, and my guys are going to show up.

Q. You mentioned you need to play better. Do you feel like is there anything Boston is doing differently these last few games, specifically on you, and what do you feel that is?

JIMMY BUTLER: No, I just missed shots. I've just got to make them. Continually hit the open guy. Stay aggressive. Continue to lead the way for our guys. They definitely follow my lead; I will say that. They follow Bam's lead as well, but especially me. So if I'm level-headed through the good and through the bad, they will be, as well.

So I'm going to smile. I'm going to go home and play some spades. I don't care what nobody say. Everything going to be okay.

Q. You mentioned being level-headed. The night going as it was for you individually, what were you thinking about? What was your mindset in the last five minutes and in that final stretch, do you feel like you found some answers?

JIMMY BUTLER: I feel like I made some shots. That's the game as a whole. I know the work that I put into it. I know the work that we put into it. I know the confidence and the faith that my coaches and teammates and this entire organization has in myself and everybody else on this roster. We are not going to change. We are going to keep throwing punches with the best of them. We are going to see where we end up.

But like I said, if I'm better from jump street, we are not even in that position. Everything that happened tonight, if I don't go 5-for-21 and turn the ball over and all of this good stuff, it's a different story, I've got on a different hat up here and we're getting ready to go to the Finals.