Jimmy Butler was unable to step onto the field in this match Miami Heat so far in their first series against Boston Celtics as he was dealing with an MCL sprain.
Perhaps feeling left out after Miami beat Boston in Game 2 and tied the series at 1-1, Butler decided to step in by doing some damage on the hardwood.
You may recall that last season when these two teams met in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Heat were up three games to zero at one point. Ahead of Game 4 and wanting to avoid getting carried away, Celtics forward Jaylen Brown had only one thing to say, “don't let us have one.” Boston almost followed Brown's lead as they forced a Game 7, but fell short as Miami advanced.
This time, many people expect the Heat to be completely overwhelmed even at full strength, let alone without Butler. So when Miami pulled out a surprising win in Game 2 after trailing by 20 points in Game 1, Butler saw it as the perfect time to borrow the phrase.
Photoshopping his face onto Brown's image with the quote “don't let us get one,” Butler posted it to Instagram with the caption “feels cute, can delete later. sikeeeee I won't delete s—.”
This also isn't the first time the 34-year-old has decided to taunt the Celtics with their usual antics.
In Game 1 of last year's series, Al Horford taunted the Heat after hitting a three to take the lead and force a timeout for Miami. In Game 3, when Game 3 was reversed and Boston had to take a timeout after a big Heat blowout, Butler made sure to return the favor.
It's safe to say that Butler likes to keep receipts.
In classic “Heat Culture” style, Miami has found a way to keep things interesting when the masses count. It's no surprise that they were the first Play-In team to reach the NBA Finals, just last season.
The win also probably had something to do with Miami setting a new franchise playoff record for three-pointers made, hitting 23 threes on a 54% clip.
Normally, that's not a sustainable strategy, but the Heat now have one four playoff games against Boston over the past two seasons, in which they have hit 50% of their threes. No other team during that span has done it more than once against any opponent. In Miami's 10 postseason wins over the past two years, they averaged 47 percent of three wins.
Maybe Butler's emotions were running high after the impressive win, or maybe he was actually trying to warn the Celtics that if they kept this up, they might get burned.
Game 3 concludes Saturday as the series moves to South Florida.
