Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler was pretty confident heading into his team’s play-in matchup against Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night.
Jimmy Butler is calling a Heat ‘dub’ tomorrow
“I’m gonna do whatever it takes for my team to win — night in and night out, and honestly, I couldn’t care less what anybody writes, if I’m a good basketball player or a bad basketball player. So as I take on tomorrow’s matchup, and… pic.twitter.com/6dJdfVaVPv
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) April 10, 2023
However, things didn’t go as planned for Butler and the Heat, as they lost to the Hawks by a score of 116-105. Following the contest, Young made sure to say that he was focused on proving the six-time All-Star wrong.
Trae Young finished his postgame presser saying: “I know Jimmy guaranteed a dub, so I was really focused on making sure that didn’t happen.” pic.twitter.com/wSyR81jSzA
— alex toledo (@tropicalblanket) April 12, 2023
Young had a pretty solid outing on Tuesday night, going for 25 points on 8-for-18 shooting while also recording eight rebounds and seven assists. His 3-pointers weren’t falling, but he was able to score around the basket and get to the charity stripe with ease.
As for Butler, he had a difficult night. While he made nine of his 11 free throws to score 21 points in total, he went 6-for-19 from the field overall and missed plenty of layups and close shots throughout the contest. He seemed to get fouled on some of those misses, but he also was unsuccessful on multiple gimmes.
The 33-year-old seems to already know what he and his teammates have to do on Friday night at home in order to secure the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Jimmy Butler:
“Come Friday, we have to legit play the exact opposite that we did tonight.”
— Brady Hawk (@BradyHawk305) April 12, 2023
Miami will play host to either the Toronto Raptors or Chicago Bulls on Friday to see who gets to face off against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the 2023 NBA Playoffs.
The Raptors and Bulls are scheduled to play each other in their play-in game on Wednesday night. The Heat organization will undoubtedly be playing close attention to that contest so that it is fully prepared on Friday.
No matter who they face, the Heat might end up being looked at as underdogs. During the regular season, Miami went a combined 1-6 against the Raptors and Bulls.
Miami lost three of its four games against Toronto while dropping all three of its contests against Chicago.
Of course, the postseason is always different than the regular season, but that combined record and Tuesday night’s showing certainly make plenty of Heat fans nervous for what is to come.
Surely, the Heat will try to come out in a more intense way on Friday night. The team only led once in the game against the Hawks, and that lead came when the score was 2-0. Atlanta took the lead at 3-2 and never looked back.
Miami’s 2022-23 season now comes down to Friday’s do-or-die contest.
