Jimmy Butler's belief helps fuel Heat's G1 comeback vs. Celtics.
BOSTON -- Jimmy Butler's belief in himself and his team is so strong that it is palpable within the Miami Heat's locker room.After the superstar swingman dominated yet another postseason game -- scoring 35 points while racking up seven assists, six steals and five rebounds in Wednesday night's 123-116 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals -- he acknowledged that he always believed this kind of run was possible for the eighth-seeded Heat, despite all the obstacles that have appeared in their way throughout the season.
Damn right I did," Butler said. "Damn right we did. And the best part about it is we still don't care what none of y'all think, honestly speaking. We don't care if you pick us to win. We never have. We never will. We know the group of guys we have in this locker room. We know that Coach [Erik Spoelstra] puts so much confidence and belief in each and every one of us. Coach Pat [Riley] as well.
"So our circle is small, but the circle got so much love for one another. We pump constant confidence into everybody. We go out there and we hoop and we play basketball the right way, knowing that we've always got a chance."
The Heat continue to play their best basketball in the midst of a dream run through the playoffs that only they believed was possible. After squeaking out a win over the Chicago Bulls in the final Eastern Conference play-in game last month, the Heat knocked off the No. 1-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in five games and the No. 5-seeded New York Knicks in six. Now they have a 1-0 lead over the Celtics -- the team that beat them last year to advance to the NBA Finals.
The Heat, who have won Game 1 in each of their first three series during the 2023 postseason, are thriving in an underdog role -- a feeling underscored by their torrid play over the past month after an up-and-down regular season.
"I would say that everybody counted us out from the beginning was kind of what builds that chip," Heat big man Bam Adebayo said. "But also the adversity that we've been through the whole season, the ups and downs, the games we should have won but didn't win. Going to the locker room and trying to figure it out, rewrite whatever we did wrong, and going through that put us in this position.
"Now I feel like we are, like you said, one of the best teams in the league, because adversity built this. We all looked each other in the face and said, this is the second play-in game, this is our last run. This is it. From there, man, I just felt like everybody just bought into that will. I feel like we've just been willing wins."
Nobody is willing more wins in the league right now than Butler. After the Heat fell down by nine at halftime Wednesday, Butler helped engineer a third-quarter rally during which Miami outscored Boston 46-25, shooting 17-for-26 from the field.
"You can't quantify it," Spoelstra said of the belief Butler is bringing to the rest of the Heat's roster right now. "There's no analytic to it. Just the feeling of stability in the locker room. Even when you're down nine in the first half ... there's just a settling effect that is impossible to quantify.
Like, all right, we are in striking distance. Let's just settle into our game, and Jimmy will make a bunch of plays, Bam will make a bunch of plays and everybody will be all right and everybody will just fit into their roles. But that's what the great players do."
Heat guard Gabe Vincent spoke for many in the locker room while describing what it's like to play with Butler right now.
"When Jimmy's playing like that, we feel like we can play with anybody, beat anybody," he said. "We got a couple guys in this locker room like that, but Jimmy's one of a kind."
The scary part for the rest of the league is that Butler brushed off the notion that this is the highest level his game has been at through the years.
"I don't think so," Butler said. "I really feel as though with anything in life, if you get the opportunity and you have the belief that my teammates, my coaches, Coach Pat, ownership have in me to kind of lead the charge, along with Bam right now, anything is possible.
"I'm playing at an incredible level because they are allowing me to do so. They are not putting a limit on my game. They are trusting me with the ball, on the defensive end. I think that's what any basketball player wants. That's what anybody wants out of life is just to be wanted, be appreciated and just let you go out there and rock."
Butler's teammates and coaches appreciate him because they know how much better he is making the group every night.
"It's fun," Heat guard Kyle Lowry said. "He's one of the best players in the world for a reason. It's just a joy to watch it. For a guy that wants it so bad and works so hard at his craft, it's important to enjoy his success. He gives us all the confidence to be successful and be aggressive and be assertive. That's what makes him special, that it's not all about him. He's about our group and our team and everyone else."
Despite poor shooting in Game 2 loss, Lakers vow to 'let it fly'.
DENVER -- LeBron James missed all six of his three-pointers -- including an 0-for-3 mark in the fourth quarter to extend his streak of 19 straight threes he's failed to convert in the fourth this postseason. Anthony Davis clanked 11 of his 15 field goal attempts. And the Los Angeles Lakers lost Game 2 of the Western Conference finals to the Nuggets, 108-103, to drop consecutive games for the first time since mid-March.As insurmountable as a 2-0 deficit might seem against the West's No. 1 team -- especially with James and Davis struggling on Thursday -- the Lakers' leaders vowed to bounce back with the series shifting to L.A.
"I think we improved from Game 1 to Game 2," said James after finishing with 22 points on 9-for-19 shooting, 10 assists, 9 rebounds and 4 steals in 40 minutes. "And if we can do the same thing from Game 2 to Game 3, we put ourselves in a position to win."
After leading by as many as 11 points in the third quarter, the Lakers fell down by 12 midway through the fourth. They mounted a rally -- but Davis missed a three with 3:15 remaining that could have cut the deficit to two; he missed another three with 40.5 seconds left that could have cut it to one; and James, after stealing a Jamal Murray pass, missed a layup with 26.4 seconds left that could have cut it to two.
"I liked all the looks that I got today," Davis said after scoring 18 points -- less than half of his 40-point output in Game 1 -- with 14 rebounds and 4 blocks. "Just a lot of them were short. I'm going to continue to shoot those shots and I got to be better, more efficient, help the team win. So, I'll be better."
The Lakers will host Game 3 on Saturday (8:30 ET, ABC) at Crypto.com Arena where they're 7-0 so far this postseason between the play-in round against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the first round against the Memphis Grizzlies and the second round against the Golden State Warriors.
But the hard-charging Nuggets -- with Nikola Jokic and Murray both looking dominant in the first two games -- are a different beast.
However, the Lakers -- just the second No. 7 seed ever to make the conference finals -- aren't about to give up now.
And James, not surprisingly, was backed up by his team. He pushed them to this place as a 38-year-old veteran in his 20th season and they're not going to stop trusting him now, either.
"I mean, he can shoot all he wants," said Austin Reaves. "It's LeBron James. I don't think anybody bats an eye when he shoots a shot or questions his shot. We want him taking whatever he feels comfortable with, just because he's a winning basketball player for his whole career and that's all he wants to do, he wants to win."
Said Ham, after James dropped to 0-for-10 from three-point range in the conference finals: "He was open, they're playing off of him. He's a highly capable three-point shooter, he let it fly."
James guarded Jokic for much of the night, feeling the impact of the two-time MVP's 6-foot-11, 280-pound frame. But James didn't use fatigue as an excuse for the errant shots.
"If you're not tired in the postseason ..." he said, trailing off. "I mean, everybody's tired."
Similarly, he wasn't about to let his left ankle that he twisted late in the fourth from prevent him from suiting up in Game 3. James said he stepped on Aaron Gordon's foot but replays showed it was Davis' foot.
"A little ankle [injury] isn't going to stop me," James told ESPN.
Teams have a 6-56 series record all-time when trailing 2-0 in the conference finals, according to research by ESPN Stats & Information. But two of those comebacks have been orchestrated by James' teams -- with Cleveland in 2007 and again in 2018.
"We still got to play with the same desperation as we did tonight," James said. "We came out with an L but doesn't give us any more comfort. We can't go into any postseason game with comfort, just because you either haven't lost at home or you're going back home."
This might be the first time all playoffs the Lakers are behind in a series, but it's not the first time the Lakers have been down this season, as coach Darvin Ham reminded reporters before Game 2 began.
"I've been down 2-10, 0-5," Ham said, reflecting on his team's start back in October. "You're never as good as they say you are and you're never as bad as they say you are. You've just got to treat each day like its own entity. Each day, each game an opportunity to go out and get better. Never get too high and never get too low."
