The Miami Heat showed great resiliency in fighting back from a 17-point deficit Thursday against the Boston Celtics.
Star forward Jimmy Butler believes that kind of character is exactly what president of basketball operations Pat Riley and head coach Erik Spoelstra look for when assembling their roster.
"I think Coach Pat, he and Spo do a good job of picking those guys, so they already got it," Butler said after the Heat's Game 2 victory, according to ESPN's Nick Friedell. "Somehow, someway, they already know the guys that are going to fit in here. And to tell you the truth, to fit in here, you just got to care about winning.
"That's the No. 1 thing. Try to win that championship, and we got a group of guys that want that night in and night out, every single day. There's only one goal on our mind, and that's to win it."
It was a rare off night offensively for Butler, who went just 4-of-11 from the field. However, Miami's marquee offseason acquisition showed his worth with a series of game-changing defensive plays down the stretch.
Butler had multiple deflections and three steals in the final 3:44 of Game 2 to help the Heat seal the victory.
"We're not gonna sit up here and try to educate everybody on what winning basketball is," Spoelstra said. "That was winning basketball from Jimmy Butler. It's not about that final line. The same thing with Bam (Adebayo) tonight; I don't even know what Bam ended up with from a scoring standpoint in Game 1, and I don't know what he ended up with tonight.
"Those guys impact winning, and Jimmy did so many things in that second half and impacted on both ends of the court. Either the average fan sees it or they don't, but we don't care."
Miami holds a 2-0 series lead and can take a stranglehold on the Eastern Conference final with a victory Saturday.
