Just a few days after leading the Eastern Conference Finals 3-0, the Miami Heat have lost two in a row to the Boston Celtics, and the pressure has shifted back onto their shoulders.
However, team leader Jimmy Butler says he and his teammates are still confident because these last two contests haven’t been indicative of who they are as a squad.
Jimmy Butler on why he still remains confident:
"Because the last 2 games are not who we are. It just happened to be that way, and we stopped playing defense halfway because we didn't make shots that we wanted to make. But that's easy to correct. We just gotta play hard from…
— Heat Nation (@HeatNationCom) May 26, 2023
After the first three games, especially the Heat’s 128-102 dismantling of Boston in Game 3, it looked very certain that they were on their way to the NBA Finals. But now, a cloud has rolled in to obscure that certainty.
They fell to Jayson Tatum and company by 17 points in Game 4, then lost Game 5 110-97 on Thursday after trailing by as many as 24 points at one point. Butler scored only 14 points, and no one on Miami’s roster even reached 20 points.
Boston, on the other hand, had four players surpass the 20-point mark.
After seeming to have their way with Boston in the first three games, it is starting to seem as if the Heat are reverting back to their anemic regular season form, especially offensively. They were the only team in the NBA to average less than 110 points a game in the regular season, and they have now failed to reach 100 points in back-to-back games.
In the first round against the Milwaukee Bucks, their lowest scoring game was 119 points in Game 4.
Miami has to feel emboldened just because it is heading home for Game 6, where the South Florida crowd is sure to give it a major boost. One has to expect it will come out more focused and look to punch the Celtics in the mouth, figuratively speaking, early in the contest.
But it needs to treat the contest as a must-win, as there’s a good chance it will be the underdog for Game 7 back in Boston if it loses, although it will be fully capable of winning such a game.
