For some, the Miami Heat reaching this year’s NBA Finals is already a tremendous accomplishment given the fact that they aren’t expected to do it as an eighth-seeded club. But for Jimmy Butler, the work doesn’t stop from that.
He told reporters in his Sunday presser that they are not satisfied yet with what they have achieved so far as they continue to dream of winning the NBA title amid the daunting challenge that they have to enter on Monday night for Game 5.
“Not at all. At the beginning of the year, we talked about winning a championship, competing to get to this point. That’s always the goal,” Butler said, dismissing the notion of being satisfied already from their postseason feat. “It’s about winning, not about individual anything. It’s about holding that trophy collectively as a unit.”
After dropping two-straight games at home, the Heat find themselves dipped in pressure time as they are facing a gigantic 3-1 series lead by the Denver Nuggets who only need one more win to claim the championship.
The league record book tells that there’s only one team out of 36 overall have managed to overcome the massive lead and went on to reach the apex of the title stage, and that was seven years ago when the Cleveland Cavaliers pulled the unthinkable over the Golden State Warriors in the epic 2016 NBA Finals.
Despite what history tells, Butler insisted that they are ready to fight and claw their way back to the series in order not to let their magical run turns to dust.
“We didn’t come this far to stop playing now, no matter what the odds are, the analytics,” Butler said, per Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald. “When we get out there, we’ve just got to compete. We’ve got to win one, and then we’ve got to win another one and then we’ve got to win another one.
“That’s where we’re at. All the odds, eight seed, yadda yadda yadda, none of that matters. It’s just two really good basketball teams. One has to get one win, and one has to get three. Let’s just hope that the other that has to get three, gets three.”
