The Heat had all the fun at the expense of the Celtics at TD Garden, but they were at least aware enough to know when to celebrate.
Miami beat Boston on its homecourt in Game 7 on Monday to advance to the NBA Finals. The loss left Celtics fans asking questions about the future of their team, but the notable moments of distraught from supporters left NBA fans and players like Draymond Green with joy.
Duncan Robinson didn’t hesitate to let the Boston faithful have it when he hit a layup in the fourth quarter to extend his team’s lead to 21. The Heat guard took inspiration from WWE legend Hulk Hogan and mocked Celtics fans for the silence of their team’s eventual defeat.
But the New England native was self aware enough to understand he had to pick his moment to talk trash.
“I wanted to do it,” Robinson said on JJ Reddick’s podcast “The Old Man and the Three” in a clip released Wednesday. “There’s a little bit of an internal conflict, because you’re playing on the floor that you that you grew up fortunate to go to games on and grew up in Celtics country. If you have the idea, you want to do it. But I have to be relevant enough in the game to warrant that. And I really towed the line on that because ideally you score 20-plus and then you’re doing it. You have more validity. I mean, my 10th point on a back cut layup, not really what I envisioned.
“… You would be shocked at how many people were really bothered. I heard from a lot of people. It was very polarizing. Some people loved it, and then obviously, all the people that were bitter back home were like, ‘That was so unnecessary. Classless.’ All this stuff, but whatever.”
Robinson revealed his phone number went out to a group chat, and the trash talk after the Game 6 loss motivated his desire to get back at Boston. The guard finished Game 7 with a modest 10 points and two steals in 20 minutes, including an impressive block on Jaylen Brown, but it was not the multiple 3-point-night he envisioned when he wanted to taunt Celtics fans.
