Jimmy Butler offered ‘no excuse’ for Game 4 performance in Heat loss vs. Celtics

"I've just got to be better. I will be better. I'm not too worried about it."

Jimmy Butler is pressured by Derrick White during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals. AP Photo/Charles Krupa

May 24, 2022

The Celtics rolled to a 102-82 win in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals on Monday night. Boston tied the series at 2-2, with Game 5 set to tip off on Wednesday night in Miami at 8:30 p.m.

Tonight at 8:10 p.m., the Red Sox begin a three-game series in Chicago against the White Sox.

Jimmy Butler’s take on Game 4: Following the Celtics’ convincing Game 4 win in the Eastern Conference finals, Jimmy Butler was asked if his knee injury — an issue that kept him out of the second half of Game 3 — played a role in his quiet night (in which he totaled just six points and seven rebounds).

“No excuse for how I played tonight,” Butler told reporters afterward. “It [doesn’t have anything] to do with my knee. I’ve just got to be better. I will be better. I’m not too worried about it.”

After notching 19 steals in the Game 3 win, the Heat were far less prolific on defense in Monday’s loss (forcing just nine Celtics turnovers).

Assessing the state of the team heading back to Miami, Butler had a straightforward remedy.

“Keep the game extremely simple,” Butler said when asked about how the team could improve on offense. “Whenever we tend to do that, we tend to play well. When anybody tries to hit a home run and do it by themselves, we kind of get in trouble. Ball sticks. We turn the ball over. We take a bad shot. We just need to do everything together like we’ve been doing all year long.

“It will be on myself, on Kyle [Lowry], on Bam [Adebayo] to make sure that we make that happen,” Butler concluded.

Trivia: In the 2020 Eastern Conference finals, the Heat defeated the Celtics in six games. Bam Adebayo led the Heat in scoring through the series. Who was Miami’s second-leading scorer?

(Answer at the bottom).

Hint: He’s currently on a team that the Celtics have already defeated in the playoffs in 2022.

More from Boston.com:

Tough night for the Heat’s starting five:

Points Scored in Game 4:
All Heat starters — 18
Victor Oladipo — 23

This is the very first playoff game that an entire starting lineup was outscored by a player from its bench (since starters were first tracked in 1970-71). pic.twitter.com/Xeo8jfNJqZ
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) May 24, 2022

The highlights from Jayson Tatum’s Game 4:

On this day: In 1988, a power outage at the Boston Garden caused Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final to be suspended with the score tied 3-3 in the second period. It would’ve been replayed in its entirety had it been necessary, but the Edmonton Oilers — in what would be Wayne Gretzky’s final game with the team — won Game 5 by a 6-3 score to sweep the series and win the championship.