What To Make Of Jimmy Butler’s Post-Game Comment About Celtics Having Better Talent Than Heat?

The Celtics were yelling and screaming at each other in the locker room after their Game 2 loss to the Miami Heat last night, which is not a good sign. They blew a huge lead for the second straight game, and they are down 0-2 with a ton of time to kill in the bubble before Game 3 Saturday night at 8:30 p.m. EDT.

Boston has more talent than Miami, according to Jimmy Butler of Miami. That is a heck of a statement from one of the most locked-in players in the series.

Here is his quote:

“That's how we're going to win. We have to make it a tougher game. We have to get it out of the mud, as we say, because on a talent level, I think Boston has an edge."

Butler was speaking about locking in defensively, which is what the Heat did in the second half after they trailed by 13 at halftime.

Miami outscored the Celtics 35-15 in the third quarter, and when it was a one-possession game in the final minute, Boston’s fate was sealed when Jaylen Brown missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer from the corner with 15.1 seconds left. Butler then made two free throws with 7.4 seconds remaining to seal the victory.

Marcus Smart was the most vocal Celtics player, and he declined an interview request after the game, ESPN’s Malika Andrews reported. Smart is an intense player, and he has 11 guys around him currently lacking in that personality characteristic.

In Game 1, the Heat rallied from a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter and pulled out the victory 117-114 in overtime. They are now 10-1 in the postseason, their only loss coming in overtime to the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks.

Their fourth-quarter moxie is demoralizing the Celtics, who were heard screaming at each other in the locker room following the game by Andrews.

"We just haven't executed it to the extent that we know we can. Two games, we came up short towards the end of the game, and we're looking forward to Game 3. We've gotta find a way to win," Brown said.

The old saying is that defense wins championships, and Miami’s zone in the second half befuddled the Celtics, who were outscored 48-26 on points in the paint. The one Boston player who was scoring with ease down low was seldom-used Enes Kanter, who went 4-for-4 in the first half but played just 2:25 in the third quarter and just 7 seconds in the fourth.

For what it is worth, Kanter disputed the turmoil reports:

Miami’s Erik Spoelstra is one of the most underrated coaches in the NBA, but his peers understand that his players run his system to near perfection.

The Heat are defeating the Celtics in mojo and moxie, too, which is a testament to the leadership of Butler, point guard Goran Dragic and All-Star center Bam Adebayo, whose incredible blocked shot against Jaylen Brown at the end of Game 1 sealed the victory.

"Coach came up to me in the third [quarter] and was like, 'I need All-Defensive Team Bam,'" Adebayo said of a pep talk he received from Spoelstra at halftime after he scored only four points. "And from there, I had to start it on defense, and then my offense started flowing with it. So I give all credit to Spo."

The Celtics will need to have a Game 7 mindset Saturday, because no team in NBA history has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a series.

Miami’s propensity to rally back from big deficits shows the same characteristic being displayed by the Denver Nuggets, who rallied from deficits of 12 points in Game 7 against the Clippers, 19 points in Game 6 against the Clippers, and 16 points in Game 5 against Los Angeles.

So if Denver goes down by double digits tonight against the Los Angeles Lakers, do not change the channel.

The Nuggets keep making comebacks (their back-to-back comebacks from 3-1 deficits against the Jazz and Clippers were unprecedented in NBA history), and the ability to never give up is one defining characteristic of a championship team.

They will have to find a way to defeat LeBron James four times, which no team could do in the conference playoffs for eight consecutive years from 2010-18. So it will be tough, but not impossible. Thursday night’s Celtics-Heat game showed us all that you usually have to wait these games out. Big early leads mean nothing.