The Miami Heat were on the receiving end of some terrible news following their Game 1 blowout defeat at the hands of the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday. After being forced to exit the game with a foot injury, it was later confirmed that Heat veteran Goran Dragic suffered a torn plantar fascia. Miami talisman Jimmy Butler quickly caught wind of the devastating news, but refused to exhibit any signs of discouragement.

While Butler acknowledged Dragic's important to the squad, the former did his best to downplay the latter potentially missing the rest of the series:

“With or without Goran, we're still expected to win,” Butler said, via The Athletic's Jared Weiss. “We know we still can. He's a big part of what we're trying to do, but until we can have him back we gotta fight even harder. We gotta even this 1-1.”

That's pretty much what you'd expect to hear from a leader of any team — even more so from a guy like Butler. The Heat are down, but they certainly are not out.

Butler himself suffered an ankle injury in Game 1, but it appears as though he will be good to go for Game 2 on Friday. He finished Wednesday's matchup with a team-high 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting. He also had two rebounds, five assists, and two steals.

Butler was Miami's best player in Game 1, but even he could not carry his team to a victory. He and the rest of his teammates will need to be much better in their next matchup — with or without Dragic.