Boston Celtics small forward Grant Williams made a huge mistake in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Miami Heat. He talked trash to NBA All-Star Jimmy Butler, who took Williams’ words personally.
Butler, one of the best players in the NBA, scored nine points in the fourth quarter to lead the Heat to a 111-105 victory.
“Yes, it did,” Butler said when a reporter asked him if Williams’ trash talk motivated him. “But that’s just competition at its finest. He hit a big shot. Started talking to me; I like that. I’m all for that. It makes me key in a lot more. It pushes that will that I have to win a lot more. It makes me smile. It does. When people talk to me, I’m like, okay, I know I’m a decent player, if you want to talk to me out of everybody that you can talk to.
“But it’s just competition. I do respect him, though,” Butler explained. “He’s a big part of what they try to do. He switches. He can shoot the ball. I just don’t know if I’m the best person to talk to (laughter).”
Butler scored 27 points in Game 2 while shooting 12-of-25 from the field and 3-of-3 from the free-throw line. The six-time All-Star is averaging 31.1 points in the 2023 playoffs, once again proving he’s one of the greatest postseason performers of all time.
“We have to believe in one another,” Butler said. “We have to go out there and compete together and withstand the runs that they will go on and be able to make runs of our own. At the end of the day, we are going to always live with the result because we did it together.”
The Heat are two wins away from reaching the NBA Finals for the second time in the Butler era. Miami reached the 2020 Finals in Butler’s first year with the team.
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