Boston led 87-96 early in the final quarter. But then Jimmy Butler provided a basket and a foul, and in response, Grant Williams got into a juicy thrash-talk with him — a big mistake, when this is, perhaps, the greatest winner in the NBA right now, a man just looking for reasons to succeed against all odds. How did it end? In another takeover by the Miami star, the Miami star won 105-111 and took a 0-2 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals, which now moves on to Miami.
"You have to know when to talk and with whom," tweeted Draymond Green, a man who knows a thing or two about trash talk, and even around the league did not remain indifferent to the moment that in retrospect changed the game — perhaps even the season of both teams.
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From that showdown to the end, Miami went on a 9-24 run to close things out. "I don't know if I'm the best person to talk to," Butler quipped at the end. "It just makes me more focused, and the desire to win grows. It makes me smile. I respect Grant." However, when asked if Williams was the defensive answer against him, he replied: "Of course not."
"I love this version of Jimmy, but he's like that regularly," Erik Spoelstra said, arguing that his star needed external conflicts to ignite his inner fire. "I guess now, people are just paying more attention to him." Caleb Martin, the X-factor with 25 points off the bench, added: "I knew this moment was going to be good for us, Jimmy is angry is Jimmy who is good for us, you could see it in his eyes." Bam Adebayo, who was also wonderful, agreed: "Those things always give Jimmy fuel."
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"I said something and he responded," Williams explained. "I'm competing and I'm going to fight. He beat me tonight and well done, but my parents taught me - when you're ripped off, don't come home until you go into another fight. I'm not going to die in the final."
"He didn't make any mistake, but his emotions overwhelmed him," Joe Mazzulla defended his replacement forward. When Jaylen Brown appeared at the press conference and was asked if Williams had made a mistake in trying to turn Butler on, he said, in despair: "Next question." His friend Jayson Tatum insisted: "It's not a big deal, it's part of the game. Players struggle and talk, it happens all the time."
Not for the first time this season, it was the Heat's character that mattered. All non-Miami playoff teams have come back five times from 12 or more points behind to win. The Heat have done it six times (!), proving time and time again to be unbreakable.
Miami is on a great start to its first Finals since 2020, after becoming the first team to win the first two games of a playoff series away from home since Dallas in 2021. Boston may take comfort in the fact that the previous team on the other side of this equation, the Los Angeles Clippers, came back in the same series and won in 7 games, but teams falling behind 2-0 in regional finals have a record of 56 losses and just six wins.
"They played well, you have to give them credit, but we're not dead," insisted Tatum, who disappeared completely in Money Time and has yet to score a field basket in the final quarter of the Eastern Conference Finals. "We still have a big chance. I'm very confident in this team, we're all safe. We have to be ready for Game 3." Of the criticism his coach Joe Mazzulla recently heard, he said: "I trust him and he trusts us. He didn't miss shots and lose balls, I missed and lost."
"They took two games, who said we can't take two games now?" added Brown. "You have to come and fight. They figured out how to hide some of their guys on defense and how to slow us down offensively, we didn't figure out how to take advantage of their zone."
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