BOSTON — Caleb Martin was thrilled to see Miami Heat teammate Jimmy Butler exchange in fourth-quarter pleasantries with Boston Celtics forward Grant Williams.
Martin had seen similar situations play out before, and knew the mindset Butler would then work with over the final six-plus minutes in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals. It played out exactly how Martin and other Heat teammates expected as Butler used the skirmish as fuel and propelled Miami to a 111-105 victory over the Celtics at TD Garden on Friday night.
“I mean, I knew it was going to be good for us,” Martin said after Miami went up 2-0 in the best-of-seven series. “Knowing Jimmy, at that point in the game, you get him going. We’ll take Mad Jimmy at any time. You could kind of see it in his eyes, he was ready to go after that. He leads, we follow. He makes it easy on all of us.”
Butler scored all nine of his fourth-quarter points after the Williams exchange.
Butler said Williams instigated the trash talk after the Celtics reserve hit a 3-pointer to put Boston ahead 96-87 with 6:37 left — a lead Boston had no issue blowing. It took Butler all of one trip down the floor to respond, finishing through Williams on a traditional three-point play. The two then went head-to-head before being separated.
Butler finished with a team-high 27 points.
“I mean, I feel like things like that always fuel Jimmy,” Heat big man Bam Adebayo said. “I feel like he starts it so he can get it going in competition. You seen down the stretch what he was doing.”
The cold-blooded Butler said the incident “made him smile.” He admitted how it fueled his performance down the stretch before dropping a line only an assassin would drop: “I just don’t know if I was the best person to talk to.”
It wasn’t just Butler’s late surge which helped Miami, though. Celtics star Jayson Tatum had a 15-minute stretch in which he did not score a point. He didn’t have a single basket in the fourth quarter all while the Heat dialed up the defensive intensity.
Butler and the Heat now return to Miami for Games 3 and 4. They’re two wins away from advancing to the NBA Finals while the Celtics are dangerously close to their postseason exit.
