What Jimmy Butler has done with the Miami Heat is arguably the best story of the 2023 NBA Playoffs. The unlikely 8-seed has knocked off the championship favorite, cruised through the second round, and even held a commanding 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Championship.
Jimmy Butler Still Confident After Game 6 Heartbreaker
“I’m gonna smile, I’m go home and play some spades. I don’t care what nobody say. Everything going to be okay.”
Jimmy Butler on staying level-headed after the Heat’s Game 6 losspic.twitter.com/tPt73OABkM
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) May 28, 2023
But now, Miami faces a Game 7 with the right to advance to the NBA Finals on the line. Given how the series has played out, their backs are up against the walls for Monday’s legacy-deciding contest.
The series should be over for the Heat. The final seconds of Game 6 ended up being an instant classic, with Butler’s 3 heroic free throws and Derrick White’s buzzer-beating put back layup. The Celtics were able to come away with the victory, staving off elimination for yet another day and keeping their hopes of an improbable comeback alive.
The Heat will travel to Boston for Monday’s Game 7, which promises to have a raucous crowd for the Celtics’ home game. The odds will be stacked against them, as Miami will enter the game as a roughly 7.5 point underdog, but it is nothing that they haven’t overcome before. And Butler doesn’t seem all that concerned.
“We’re gonna do it as a unit every single time… I don’t give a damn what happens, we’re gonna go in there and we’re gonna win.”
Jimmy Butler on the Heat heading into Game 7 of the ECF vs. the Celtics.
(via @CBSSports) pic.twitter.com/YKCoL2fvFs
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) May 28, 2023
For the third time in a row, Butler had a positive outlook following a loss. During the postgame press conference following Game 6, he finished off an answer by letting us know his plans for the rest of the evening:
“I’m gonna smile. I’m gonna go home and play some spades. I don’t care what nobody say. Everything gonna be okay.”
It mirrors his sentiments from the previous post games, but Jimmy Butler’s Heat haven’t responded in the way that he’d hoped. Cameras caught him smiling through the blowouts in Games 4 and 5, which showed the confidence he had that Miami would ultimately be able to get the job done.
But they now face the possibility of letting the unthinkable happen. There has never been a team in the history of the NBA that has come back from a 3-0 deficit in any round of the playoffs, as the overall record for those teams is 150-0. But the oddsmakers and general public like the Celtics to make history and end the magical run from Butler and the Heat.