Fallout from Butler-Williams face-to-face exchange
The moment Boston’s Grant Williams hit a three-pointer and started trash-talking Jimmy Butler, the moment Butler then scored on the other end and went forehead-toforehead with Williams, Heat forward Caleb Martin sensed what would happen next.
“I knew that would be good for us,” Martin said. “We’ll take mad Jimmy any time.”
When Williams hit that three and started yapping, the Celtics were up nine with 6:37 left. From there, the Heat outscored the Celtics, 24-9, to close to its 111-105 win, an avalanche that began with Butler immediately attacking Williams on the other end, hitting a shot and drawing a foul.
Like caribou interlocking antlers, Butler and Williams then went face to face, jabbering at each other, each calling for technical fouls.
Butler scored nine of the Heat’s final 24 points after Williams started running his mouth. Boston finished the game shooting 2 for 10, with three turnovers, after that Williams three, and now finds itself down 2-0 in this series, with Game 3 on Sunday in Miami (8:30 p.m., TNT).
Williams — who rejoined the Celtics rotation after not playing at all in Game 1 — expressed no remorse, and certainly no regrets, afterward.
“I’m a competitor, and I’m going to battle,” Williams said. “He got the best of me tonight, and at the end of the day, it’s out of respect, because I’m not gonna run away from it.
“My mom always taught me, and my dad as well, you get your [butt] kicked and you don’t come back home until you come battle again. You either come back and you die or you come back and go get a win. And I’m not willing to die in this [playoff round]. I’m ready to [expletive] get a win.”
Williams said he never worried that Butler would take control of the game after he started trash-talking the Heat’s star.
“None of that,” Williams said. “You expect to beat the best. No matter if I lit him up or not, he’s going to do that. For me, it’s a matter of understanding that motivator. I think he’s got a great feel for players and they like him, his relationships are good. I just don’t think he has a weakness.”
But what sets Spoelstra apart from other coaches is what was on display late in the Heat’s Game 2 win on Friday. It’s Spoelstra’s ability to shape-shift his system around the strengths and weaknesses of his players and opponent and/or the context of the moment.
“I think the thing he does, which I think all coaches strive to do but he’s just done a great job of is he will clearly play to the strengths of the players on his roster and it changes from year to year,” Van Gundy said. “It’s never about his ego or his system, it’s what will help this team win and he’ll go with that.”
With the Celtics having success against the Heat’s man-to-man defense, Spoelstra was able to rely on the zone to slow their offense and complete Friday’s comeback. But yeah, sure, you did poke a bear, quote unquote. And how are you going to respond?”
Butler, for his part, said Williams’ chatter was not the reason the Heat won.
“That’s just competition at its finest,” Butler said. “He hit a big shot. Started talking to me; I like that. I’m all for that. It makes me key in a lot more. It pushes that will I have to win a lot more. It makes me smile.
“When people talk to me, I’m like, ‘OK, I know I’m a decent player. If you want to talk to me out of everybody you can talk to.’...
“I do respect him, even beyond that, Spoelstra has built a Heat defense that can switch pickand-rolls, play drop coverage, pick ball-handlers up full court, trap teams’ best players and show and recover on screens to protect its weaker defenders.
Whatever is required to put the Heat in the best position to win.
“By the time you get to the playoffs, you better have some alternatives based on who you’re playing,” Van Gundy said. “Like can we switch, can we drop, can we blitz people, can we double team, can we zone? Erik builds that in. So when they get to these times of the year, you’re not trying to go into a walk-through for one hour and put something in you haven’t done all year. They’ve done it throughout the year. He gets his team ready for this time of the year during the regular season.”
Veteran Kevin Love has only been with the Heat for three months after though. He’s a big part of what they try to do. He switches. He can shoot the ball. I just don’t know if
I’m the best person to talk to.”
As Heat center Bam Adebayo said afterward: “Things like that always fuel Jimmy.”
Butler also did his share of talking. According to ESPN’s Mark Jones, after Butler scored on Williams, Butler turned to Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla and said “You thought this would work?” and “This is what you wanted.”
Whereas the Heat sent occasional double teams at Jayson Tatum, the Celtics usually covered Butler with signing with Miami during the mid-February All-Star break, but Spoelstra has already made a strong impression on him.
“We are, I think, the most well prepared team,” Love said. “And as far as execution goes, we execute at an extremely high level and that all starts with him. I think at the end of the day against any team, no matter who we’re playing, we’re going to give ourselves a shot to win.”
How does Spoelstra consistently make sure that’s the case?
“Just his attention to detail,” Love said. “It can be across the board. It can be matchups, it can be tendencies, it can be advanced analytics, it can be coaching styles on different teams and the way that they play, understanding where teams are at in their season. That stuff all matters and all those details matter in getting a victory.”
The Heat’s historic playoff run is filled with eye-opening numbers: just one defender, even as he crushed their soul with a 27-point night.
Asked if he’s considering double-teaming Butler at times in this series, Mazzulla suggested that wasn’t particularly important.
“I think when he misses, we have to get the rebound,” Mazzulla said. “We gave up two very, very critical offensive rebounds. We let Duncan Robinson get loose for a couple threes in the fourth quarter. I think focusing on the role guys getting going is more important than that. When he misses, we have to get the rebound.”
TATUM’S FOURTH QUARTERS
For the second consecutive game, the Heat held Celtics All-NBA forward Tatum without a fourthquarter field goal.
With the Heat often sending a second defender to help, Tatum didn’t even attempt a shot from the field in the fourth quarter of Game 1; he took three in Game 2 and missed all of them, tarnishing a 34-point night.
Tatum has 11 combined points in the two fourth quarters — all on free throws — and five turnovers,
The Heat is 6-2 when trailing double-digits in this year’s playoffs. The rest of the NBA is 15-60 in those situations.
The Heat is an NBAbest 6-2 in clutch games (one that has a margin of five points or fewer inside the final five minutes of the fourth quarter) after recording the most clutch wins (32) in the league this regular season.
The Heat has outscored opponents by an NBA-best 20.1 points per 100 possessions in the fourth quarter during this year’s playoffs.
The Heat, which was outscored by a total of 26 points this regular season, is the first team since at least 2000 to advance to the conference finals after posting a negative point differential in the regular season.
Love believes Spoelstra has played a big role in all of that from the sideline, as the Heat’s duo of Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler leads the way on the court.
“He knows exactly who he is and knows exactly what he wants,” Love said of Spoelstra. “I mean, that calms us down. That allows a level of comfort for us, understanding that he’s battle-tested, he’s been there before. Guys like Jimmy and Bam are an extension of him. So those two guys are going to lead us out there on the floor, but we know we have one of the best all time who’s sitting on the sideline who’s going to lead us and guide us through this.”
The Heat has won two championships with Spoelstra at the helm, but this one would represent his greatest achievement as a head coach. A No. 8 seed has never won an NBA title.
But don’t tell Spoelstra that. There’s plenty of work to be done before that possibility even crosses his mind, plus he’ll never accept credit for it.
“I think he doesn’t get caught up in getting too
AAAAwith Max Strus and Butler among those involved in creating those mistakes.
“I thought against zone ... he was extremely aggressive,” Mazzulla said. “I thought Jayson just made the right play, got the ball where it needed to go, whether it was him or others.”
Tatum said he did what he could but “sometimes shots just don’t go in. I had the ball a lot. Obviously, I draw a lot of attention [so] I’m creating for others.”
With his team down 2-0, Tatum said: “We’re not dead or anything. I still have the utmost confidence.”
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has grown weary of questions about the Heat having seven undrafted players, including four rotation players (Gabe Vincent, Strus, Martin and Robinson).
“So disrespectful to keep on talking about them that way,” Spoelstra said. “These guys have proven themselves as competitors and winning players.”
AABarry Jackson: 305-376-3491, @flasportsbuzz high or getting too low. He’s not into all that,”
Van Gundy said. “He’s just about what’s next and what do we have to do to win. I think players have great respect for that. He’s not dwelling on the past or failures. It’s just all look ahead.”
Anthony Chiang: 305-376-4991, @Anthony_Chiang