For Jimmy Butler, his faith won’t fade away for the Miami Heat as they were hammered away by the Atlanta Hawks on their home floor, 116-105, to fall in the 2023 Play-In tournament this Tuesday.
But before that, Butler, who shot 6-for-19 in the defeat, believes that the Heat must settle their concerns as they head on Friday to face Wednesday’s winner between the Toronto Raptors and the Chicago Bulls, wherein the victor will ultimately fill the final playoff spot of the Eastern Conference postseason chart.
“We’d have to stay confident,” Butler said postgame, per ESPN’s Nick Friedell. “We have to know we are capable of winning, if we start out the right way and if we rebound obviously. But it’s just, I don’t know, shots don’t go in, we foul – that’s never the recipe for success with us.
“So come Friday, we’ve got to play, like, legit the exact opposite that we played tonight.”
Miami, last year’s Conference Finals runner-up, found themselves in a peculiar position this season due to injuries and inconsistencies. As they headed to the Play-In arena, they were suddenly shattered by how the young Atlanta team fared up against them, whom they eliminated last year in their first-round encounter.
The Heat shot 42.9 percent from the floor, but their main issue all season long was heavily exposed by the visiting Hawks.
Featuring a plethora of big units in the likes of Clint Capela and Onyeka Okungwu, Atlanta outmuscled and obliterated Miami in rebounding amount, pulling down a total of 63 boards over the home team’s embarrassing 39. Within these overwhelming numbers registered by the Hawks were 22 offensive glasses.
The Hawks also capitalized on this weakness by the Heat in terms of their length, tallying 64 points in the paint.
“Rebounding was just horrendous,” Butler said about the Heat’s lowly boards tallied on their loss. “We didn’t put body on body and they got all the rebounds, all the second-chance points. And that was the game.”
With the defeat, the Heat became the first seventh-seed team to drop down and set up for the fight for the last postseason slot of the playoffs. The brief five-year history of the Play-In Tournament featured an unblemished 4-0 record amongst those seventh placers heading to Tuesday.
Head coach Erik Spoelstra keeps his spirit high amid the tough setback, as they will return to work and prepare for the do-or-die Friday bout.
“At least we have a lot of experience,” Spoelstra said. “We’ve had a lot of ups and downs this season. Nothing about this season has been easy, so we’re going to do this the hard way. We’re going to get back to work tomorrow, regroup, put our arms around each other, get to the film and get better from this.”
