Miami Heat president Pat Riley seemingly took exception to Jimmy Butler’s decision to troll the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks.
Butler uploaded the following post to Instagram after the Heat beat the Celtics in Game 2 of their first-round series at TD Garden.
Sans Butler, the Heat beat the Celtics by 10 points in Game 2. Superb 3-point shooting guided the Heat to their lone win of the series, considering the team knocked down a franchise playoff record 23 3s and shot 53.5 percent from 3-point range.
Seven players knocked down at least one 3-pointer, with Tyler Herro burying a team-high six of them. Herro led the Heat in scoring with 24 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field and 6-of-11 from deep while also dishing out a whopping 14 assists.
Another contributing factor in Miami’s Game 2 win was the play of Celtics star big man Kristaps Porzingis. Porzingis had maybe his worst game as a Celtic, as he finished with just six points on 1-of-9 shooting from the floor and also turned the ball over twice.
But after winning Game 2 of the best-of-seven series, Miami was massively outplayed for the remainder of the series.
The Celtics went on to win both Games 3 and 4 at Kaseya Center by double digits to take a commanding 3-1 series lead. From there, Boston closed out the series with a dominant Game 5 win to end Miami’s season in the first round.
Following Miami’s elimination, footage surfaced of Butler saying that if he had been healthy against Boston, the Heat would have eliminated the Celtics for the second year in a row.
While a healthy Butler could have provided the Heat with a much-needed boost on both ends of the floor, it’s difficult to argue that his presence alone would have swung the balance in what turned out to be such a lopsided series.
The Celtics are arguably a better team than they were a year ago, when they lost in the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals. Furthermore, Miami lost both Max Strus and Gabe Vincent in the 2023 offseason, both of whom were key pieces of the team’s run to the 2023 NBA Finals.