Jimmy Butler is confident that the Miami Heat will secure their date with the Boston Celtics in the first round of the NBA playoffs Saturday afternoon.
Butler came up just shy on a 3-pointer of sending the Heat to the NBA Finals in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals last season against the Celtics, in what would've been one of the all-time great moments in playoff history. But it's clear that the six-time All-Star is in search of redemption. So much so that Butler is looking past Miami's Play-In Tournament matchup with the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday, calling his shot at a win that'll set up a Heat-Celtics rematch.
"I'm gonna do whatever it takes for my team to win -- night in and night out, honestly, I couldn't care less what anybody writes, if I'm a good basketball player or a bad basketball player," Butler told reporters Monday, according to Joe Vardon of The Athletic. "So as I take on tomorrow's matchup, and we get that dub, we'll worry about what goes on down the line. But I think I'm gonna be a decent basketball player at the end of the day."
No doubt a "decent" basketball player is a more than suitable label for Butler. He averaged 22.9 points, 5.9 rebounds and 5.3 assists while shooting a career-high 53.9% from the field this season in 64 games. Butler also gave the C's plenty of trouble during last year's best-of-seven duel, averaging a series-leading 25.6 points. But overlooking the Hawks, from the perspective of the Heat might prove to backfire.
The Heat defeated the Hawks in three of their four matchups during the regular season, however, Atlanta did average 114 points of offense.
Meanwhile, the Celtics cruised -- aside from a few bumps and scratches -- for the better part of their year, and now are enjoying the fruits of their labor and yawning while the Heat battle for a legitimate playoff position.
Granted the Heat are also no walk in the park of an opponent, but Miami has its back against the wall for a reason. And as he was during the Heat's run to the NBA Finals in 2020, Butler will certainly have his work cut out for him in order to re-deliver those postseason results against a much more refined East.
