Grant Williams supplied a spark for the Celtics in his return to the rotation on Friday night time, however the lasting reminiscence of him of their Game 2 loss to the Heat gained’t be fond.
Williams poked the bear, and it didn’t finish nicely for the Celtics.
The bear was Jimmy Butler, and an incident between the Heat star and Williams helped him will a Miami victory in Boston, sending the Celtics right into a 2-0 collection gap within the Eastern Conference Finals.
The encounter between the 2 gamers got here halfway by way of the fourth quarter. Williams had simply made a 3-pointer over Butler to push the Celtics’ result in 9. When the 2 went to run all the way down to the opposite aspect of the court docket, Williams acquired in his ear with a couple of phrases. Then, Butler acquired the ball matched up with Williams one-on-one, drove and scored over him for a three-point play. Butler then acquired in Williams’ face, and the 2 bumped heads in a heated change. The two had been assessed a double technical foul.
“I think he said something and I just responded,” Williams mentioned.
The incident appeared to push Butler and the Heat. After Williams hit the 3-pointer and mentioned one thing to Butler, the Heat completed the sport on a 24-9 run – together with Butler’s three-point – to complete the sport and take Game 2. Butler scored the game-tying and go-ahead jumpers as he put Miami on his again.
Did the run-in with Williams gas Butler?
“Yes, it did. But that’s just competition at its finest,” Butler mentioned. “He hit a giant shot. Started speaking to me. I like that. I’m all for that. It makes me key in much more. It pushes that may that I’ve to win much more. It makes me smile. It does. When folks discuss to me, I’m like, okay, I do know I’m a good participant, if you wish to discuss to me out of everyone you could discuss to. …
“But it’s just competition. I do respect him, though. 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.”
Butler emphasised that the encounter with Williams was not the rationale the Heat gained the sport. They acquired main contributions from Caleb Martin, who scored 25 factors off the bench. They made well timed performs down the stretch. But the meat with Williams actually didn’t damage.
Williams had no regrets about going at Butler.
“You expect to beat the best, no matter if I lit him up or not, he’s going to do that,” Williams mentioned. “For me, it’s a matter of understanding that yeah, certain, you probably did poke a bear, quote unquote. And how are you going to reply? Because for me, he made some robust photographs, I battled, and I’m going to maintain battling. He’s going to must make each single robust shot the remainder of the collection, and I’m not going to show and look in any other case as a result of I respect him as a mother-(expletive) participant.
“He’s a great man, great person, great human being, known him for a while. But at the end of the day, we have a real, real decision to make. And that decision is going to be, are we going to come back and really set the tone for the rest of this year and really make a statement, or are we going to come out and lay down? And I don’t think this team is built for laying down.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com