AP Photo/Wilfred Lee
The Boston Celtics avoided a sweep in the Eastern Conference Finals on Tuesday night, defeating the Miami Heat, 116-99 in Game 4.
That brings up the logical talking point that maybe the Celtics—now headed home for Game 5—can build a little momentum and become first team in NBA history to come back from a 3-0 deficit in a playoff series.
But Jimmy Butler—who scored 29 points in a losing effort—saw the outcome from a different perspective.
“If anything, it will build momentum for us, knowing we have to play with a lot of energy,” he told reporters. “We’ve got to play like our backs are against the wall. I think all year we’ve been better whenever we’ve had to do things our way.”
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“If anything, it will create momentum for us.”
Jimmy Butler’s thoughts after the Game 4 loss to Miami. pic.twitter.com/zbyJtwPDPB
Caleb Martin echoes a similar sentiment.
“It’s definitely frustrating,” he said said the reporters. “That would have been a perfect situation [to end it]. Everyone knows that we usually don’t get things the easy way. It’s right up our alley. … It’s going to be good for us.”
Doing things the hard way has been a theme for a Heat team that struggled with injuries and inconsistency during the regular season and had to compete in the play-in tournament to qualify for the postseason. An easy, breezy sweep would not have been characteristic of this Heat.
And coming back to Boston and trying to close out the series in front of a Celtics crowd certainly won’t be easy.
“We always say the last one to get is the hardest one to get,” said Bam Adebayo to reporters. “I knew they would be desperate.”
“We were just trying to save our season,” added Jayson Tatum.
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“We listen to music. We drink beers there. We drink wine… We smile, we do this together… And we’re gonna go get one on the road.”
An inspired Jimmy Butler after Game 4. pic.twitter.com/SfTYJtcItE
But the luxury of building a 3-0 series lead is that a loss or two isn’t so bad. The Heat still have three more chances to clinch a spot in the NBA Finals against the Denver Nuggets.
However, the longer this series goes, the more momentum will shift to Boston, no matter how hard Butler tries to make it.
