Jimmy Bulter hasn’t been able to step onto the court for the Miami Heat so far in their first-round series against the Boston Celtics as he’s dealt with an MCL sprain.
Possibly feeling left out after Miami beat Boston in Game 2 and tied the series 1-1, Butler decided to get involved by doing some damage off the hardwood instead.
You might recall last season when these two teams met in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Heat led three games to zero at one point. Ahead of Game 4 and looking to avoid being swept, Celtics forward Jaylen Brown had just one thing to say, “don’t let us get one.” Boston nearly lived up to the words of Brown as they forced a Game 7, but fell just short as Miami advanced.
This time around many expected the Heat to be thoroughly outmatched even at full strength, let alone without Butler available. So, when the Heat got a surprising Game 2 victory after being blown out by 20 points in Game 1, Butler deemed it the perfect moment to borrow the phrase from his opponents.
Photoshopping his face onto a graphic of Brown with the quote “don’t let us get one,” Butler posted it to Instagram with the caption “feeling cute, might delete later. sikeeeee I ain’t deleting s—.”
This also wouldn’t be the first time that the 34-year-old has decided to taunt the Celtics with antics familiar to them.
In Game 1 of last year’s series Al Horford mocked the Heat after hitting a three to cap off a big run and forcing Miami to call a timeout. In Game 3 when the rolls were reversed and Boston had to call a timeout after a big Heat run, Butler made sure to return the favour.
Safe to say Butler likes to keep receipts.
In classic “Heat Culture” fashion, Miami has found a way to make things interesting when many counted them out. Not surprising considering they’re the first Play-In team to make it to the NBA finals, just last season.
The win probably also had something to do with Miami setting a new franchise playoff record in three-pointers made, drilling 23 triples on a 54 per cent clip.
Typically, that’s not a sustainable strategy but the Heat now have four playoff games against Boston in the last two seasons in which they’ve hit 50 per cent of their threes. No other team in that span has done it more than once against any opponent. In Miami’s 10 post-season wins in the last two years, they’ve hit 47 per cent of their threes on average.
Maybe emotions are running high for Butler after an impressive victory, or maybe he’s genuinely trying to warn the Celtics that if they keep this up, they might just get burned.
Game 3 tips off on Saturday when the series shifts to South Florida.
