With their season on the line, the Miami Heat played a propelled Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals on Friday night.
Expecting to win to expand their season, the top-seeded Heat held off an irate convention from the Boston Celtics to take out the 111-103 triumph at TD Garden.
Jimmy Butler played the game of his life, pouring in a playoff-career high 47 points to send the best-of-seven series back to Miami for winner-take-all Game 7.
Falling off a 25-point home loss in Game 5 and heading out and about for Game 6, the Heat were being counted out by pretty much every NBA examiner and, surprisingly, a few players, including Warriors forward Draymond Green.
That was all the fuel the Heat required.
Moments after the last bell sounded in Boston, veteran Heat forward Udonis Haslem walked over to Mike Breen, Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy at the ESPN broadcast table and had a comment.
“He wants a message to be relayed,” Jackson said. “He said, ‘Tell Draymond Green thank you.’ Draymond Green said, ‘We’re going to play the Boston Celtics.’ Udonis Haslem walks over and says, ‘Thank you for the inspiration.’ ”
A couple of moments later, P.J. Exhaust went on ESPN and said basically exactly the same thing.
“Hey, tell Draymond I said ‘Appreciate it,’ ” Tucker told ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt on SportsCenter after the game.
Following the Warriors’ success over the Mavericks on Thursday night to secure their spot in the NBA Finals, Green went on TNT’s “Inside the NBA” show and was asked which group he might want to play.
“If you’re asking me who I want to play, I’m going to tell you who I think we’re going to play,” Green said. “We’re going to play Boston. That’s who we’re going to play.”
Green could have startlingly gotten a fire going under the Heat. On the off chance that Miami beats Boston in Game 7 on Sunday night, they will convey additional inspiration into the NBA Finals against the Warriors.