Jimmy Butler was not pleased with his team after the Miami Heat lost in lackluster fashion to the Denver Nuggets in Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday night. Butler was point-blank in his postgame press conference, firmly telling the media that a loss like that “can't happen” to the Heat again, per Nick Friedell of ESPN.
“I don't know. I can't answer that. Maybe we're at home; we think we did something. I don't know. It just can't happen. It won't happen again. It starts with myself. I have to lock in on the defensive end. I have to go up and get loose balls. I think if I start playing and doing that, then everybody else has to follow suit.”
Butler didn't just call out his Heat teammates though. The star forward, who did pour in a team-high 28 points on the offensive end, called himself out as well for what he perceived as a lack of hustle and effort on the defensive end.
Butler feels that if he sets a better tone in Game 4 against the Nuggets, the rest of his teammates will follow suit.
The Heat have not had a defensive answer to the Nuggets' machine-like offense thus far in the NBA Finals, though they were at least able to generate some easy buckets in the Game 2 win, as Butler and company forced 11 turnovers and scored 23 points off of them.
That's part of the winning formula for the Heat.
Unfortunately, the team strayed too far away from that strategy on Wednesday night- and they paid dearly for it.
Butler knows this.
The Heat need to come out with better energy in Game 4 against the Nuggets- or else.
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