‘This Is Not Last Year’: Miami Turning the Tables on Boston in the East Finals

We’re two games into the series, and you have to wonder which team looks like the eight-seed also-ran and the other the prohibitive favorite.

Late Friday, with his postgame interview finished and a 2–0 series lead secured, Jimmy Butler was still talking. Miami’s 111–105 victory featured what has become typical brilliance from Butler: 27 points, eight rebounds, six assists and a string of clutch shots that helped the Heat erase a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter. As he made his way toward the Heat locker room, Butler delivered a message to the stunned fans within ear shot.

“There’s no way,” Butler said. “There’s no way they thought that was the answer.”

That, presumably, was Boston’s decision to play Grant Williams, a sturdy, versatile defender who was a DNP-CD in the Eastern Conference finals series opener. Williams played well early, coming off the bench in the first quarter and knocking down three three-pointers in the first half. Midway through the fourth, Williams connected on another three that stretched the Celtics lead to nine. As he made his way up the floor, Williams started talking to Butler. After Butler drew a foul on Williams on the next possession, the two went nose-to-nose.

On the next possession, Butler hit a floater that cut the lead to four. A few plays later, a 17-footer tied it. After a Gabe Vincent steal, Butler knocked down a 12-foot fadeaway that gave the Heat a lead they wouldn’t give back.

“I feel like he starts [altercations],” said Bam Adebayo, “so it can get him more in the competition.”

Butler had 27 points, eight rebounds and six assists in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals against Boston :: Charles Krupa/AP

Butler agreed.

“It makes me key in a lot more,” Butler said. “It pushes that will that I have to win a lot more.”

And Williams?

“I do respect him,” Butler said. “I just don't know if I'm the best person to talk to.”

Butler won his battle with Williams. “I love that gnarly version of Jimmy,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. And Miami won yet another game against Boston. Two games into this series and it’s the Celtics who look like an eight-seed also-ran and the Heat the prohibitive favorites. Jayson Tatum scored 34 points but didn’t make a shot in the fourth quarter. Jaylen Brown needed 23 shots to get his 16 points. Through two games, Al Horford is 1-for-8 from three-point territory.

In Game 1, Boston was outscored 46–25 in the third quarter.

In Game 2, the Celtics were beaten 36–22 in the fourth.

“I thought we got good looks,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “Just didn't think we made them.”

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Miami did. Caleb Martin scored 25 points. When Martin checked in, Boston shifted Robert Williams over to defend him. It’s a strategy that worked last season when the two teams met in the conference finals. It did not work in this one. Martin made 11 of his 16 shots, breezing past Williams when he stepped out to defend him.

“One thing Caleb told me was, ‘This is not last year,’” Adebayo said. “That really resonated with me because they did the same thing to him last year. I feel like he felt like it was disrespectful.”

Max Strus scored 11 points. In the first quarter, former Celtics center Tacko Fall was shown on the Jumbotron at TD Garden. Moments later, Strus knocked down a three. In 2019, Boston chose Fall over Strus for its final roster spot. Strus later signed with the Heat and played 80 games this season. Whoops.

Duncan Robinson scored 15. “Next man up” is an oft-used cliché in the NBA. Every team wants to be plug-and-play. Miami is. Robinson, a starter during the Heat’s march to the 2020 Finals, played in 42 games this season. He started in just one. He was inactive for all but two games in January. He was out of the rotation in March. When Tyler Herro went down in the first round with a hand injury, Robinson stepped in. A noted sharpshooter, Robinson made three three-pointers in Game 2, but it was his three drives to the rim that impressed Spoelstra.

“Now that's been two years of development,” Spoelstra said. “The scouting report was to do anything and everything to get him off that three-point line. So he's been working on that diligently for two offseasons … really working on his off-ball movement, more actions to the rim and putting the ball on the floor. I can't even mention how many drives he's worked on during the offseason over and over and over, and then still doing his normal shooting routine because that's what creates the overreactions.”

Adebayo was a force. Boston has had no answer for him. He collected 20 points and eight rebounds in Game 1. He had 22 points and 17 rebounds in Game 2, coming one assist shy of a triple double. Williams couldn’t corral him. Horford, who capably slowed Joel Embiid last round, couldn’t either. On Friday, Adebayo had eight points and eight rebounds in the fourth quarter alone.

Then, there is Butler. Boston did a credible job of defending him early. After getting torched from three-point range in Game 1, the Celtics largely defended Butler one-on-one, mixing up the defenders he had in front of him. But Butler, as he has done all postseason, imposed his will in the fourth quarter, racking up nine points in eight minutes. When the final buzzer sounded, Butler tapped heads with Adebayo and asked, “That’s the answer to the Jimmy Butler problem?”

“I think our game plan is kind of simple in the fourth quarter, if I'm being brutally honest,” Butler said. “It's kind of like, ‘Give me the ball and move,’ and I'm tasked with making the right play. Sometimes I shoot the ball. Most of the times, I shoot the ball. A lot of times, it's pass to the open guy.”

The Celtics didn’t appear discouraged Friday. Grant Williams insisted he wouldn’t back down from Butler. “I’m going to keep battling,” Williams said. “He’s going to have to make every single tough shot the rest of the series.”

Tatum believes there are positives that will carry over when the series shifts to Miami.

“I mean, it's no point in being up here sad and s---, right?” Tatum said. “We're not dead or anything. We’ve got a great opportunity. I still have the utmost confidence, everybody has the utmost confidence. We’ve just got to get ready for Game 3.”

They better be. Miami isn’t the 44-win team from the regular season. It isn’t the lifeless bunch that lost the first play-in game on its home court. The Heat are battle-tested after so many close games in the regular season and the physicality of the playoffs suits them.

They will be ready to play Sunday.

Boston better be, too.