When it looked like the Heat would comfortably make their way to the NBA Finals, the Celtics pulled off a commanding win in Game 2 to tie the series up and return to Boston in high spirits.
Miami had initially taken the lead in the Eastern Conference Finals but looked like a completely different team on Thursday night, when Erik Spoelstra‘s men suffered a 127-102 defeat.
The Heat simply couldn’t keep up with the Celtics’ pace, as the visitors scored 70 points in the first half to head into the break leading by 25 points. Jimmy Butler knows his team was outplayed, but he vows to not let it happen again.
Jimmy Butler knows Heat can’t repeat Game 2 performance
“I promise you, I will figure it out,” Butler said postgame. “It can’t get too much worse. They whipped our tail on our home floor. You do gotta move on, but I don’t like to move on from this because it has to hurt. They tried to embarrass us. They did embarrass us. We gotta realize that, use it as fuel… overall, we just have to be better.”
It was certainly not the result anyone in South Florida was expecting for, but things are still wide open. The Heat will make the trip to Boston on Saturday for Game 3, aiming to retake the lead.
