Jimmy Butler Takes Blame for Celtics Forcing Game 7 After Heat Were Up 3-0 in Series

Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler held himself accountable after the Boston Celtics sent the Eastern Conference finals to a Game 7.

Following his team’s 104-103 loss in Game 6, Butler told reporters he approached his teammates and said, “If I play better, we’re not even in this position.”

There’s some truth to those comments.

Butler isn’t the sole reason Miami couldn’t seal the deal at home, but his performance left something to be desired. He nearly finished with a triple-double (24 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists) but shot just 5-of-21 from the field.

The Heat made 35.5 percent of their shots, including 30.2 percent of their attempts from inside the arc.

Erik Spoelstra’s squad will be replaying plenty of moments from Saturday night, none bigger than Derrick White’s putback at the buzzer. The Celtics guard had a clear path to the basket to clean up Marcus Smart’s miss.

But Boston isn’t in a position to win in the final seconds at all if Miami simply knocks down a few more shots earlier in the contest.

The concerning thing for the Heat is that the last three games are a much closer reflection of how they looked in the regular season than their hot start to the series was.

They finished 26th in shooting percentage (46.0) and 27th in three-point percentage (34.4), and they were 25th in offensive rating (112.3), per NBA.com.

Everybody can see Miami needs to be more efficient in Game 7. Actually executing that goal might be easier said than done.