Not too many fans gave the Miami Heat much of a chance when they entered their first-round series against the Boston Celtics without Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier. Fans even made fun of how Heat supporters chanted “We want Boston” during their play-in tournament, but on Wednesday night, Miami showed that they remain the bane of the Celtics' existence by taking a 111-101 Game 2 win to even up the series at one apiece.
There is simply no counting the Heat out, and they should only gain more confidence as the series goes deeper. And even though he's unable to play due to a serious MCL injury, Butler has remained a central figure in Miami's goal to make life difficult for the Celtics — even harkening back to something Jaylen Brown said after going down 3-0 in last year's Eastern Conference Finals in a hilarious troll job from the Heat star.
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If there's anyone afraid to ruffle his opponents' feathers, it's Jimmy Butler, and he has proven once again that there are few players as funny as he is when it comes to these sorts of things. The Heat take upon Butler's never-say-die mentality, and the Celtics have to be wary moving forward of the threat they pose despite being shorthanded.
Will these words come back to haunt Jimmy Butler?
As entertaining as Jimmy Butler's callback was to what Jaylen Brown said when the Heat went up 3-0 in the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals, Celtics fans would know that Brown's statement ended up ringing hollow. Boston proceeded to win the next three games after Brown said what he said, but in Game 7, the Celtics floundered. Despite being at home, the Celtics shot the ball just 39.8 percent from the field, hounded all throughout by a locked-in Heat defense.
Thus, with Butler making fun of what Brown said, the Heat may end up facing the same fate; they might keep the series more competitive than anyone gave them credit for prior to the start of the series, but the Celtics might still advance to Round 2 in the end.
Nonetheless, the Heat are playing with nothing but house money. As capable as they are of another underdog run to the NBA Finals, doing so without the services of Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier may be a mountain to high to climb, even for this Heat team. Thus, the Celtics remain the favorites to win the series. But it makes for very entertaining viewing with Butler upping the stakes with his savage Instagram post — and makes him a very prescient man if Miami does end up toppling Boston yet again.
The Heat just won't go away
In certain parts of the world, the heat index has become close to unbearable. Perhaps this is what's buoying the Heat's performance in another masterclass against the Celtics. All five starters for the Heat in Game 2 scored in double figures, led by Tyler Herro's 24 points, while a familiar face, Caleb Martin, returns to haunt Boston yet again, popping off for 21 points on 7-12 shooting from the field (5-6 from deep).
It was a point of emphasis for the Heat to correct the shooting “discrepancy”, as they called it, and that's exactly what they did. As a team, they made 23 threes on Wednesday night, 11 more than the Celtics made. For reference, during their blowout Game 1 loss, Miami made 10 fewer threes than the Celtics — a difficult mathematical disadvantage to overcome especially when the team is already down two of its best players.
Head coach Erik Spoelstra deserves so much credit yet again for putting his Heat players in a position of success. There might not be anyone in the league better in maximizing the talent of the team he has in hand, and it showed yet again on Wednesday that Spoelstra is able to push the right buttons at the right time.
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