Miami Heat | Jimmy Butler speaks up as ‘horrendous’ Heat struggle, also addresses losing Lowry

NEW YORK — Jimmy Butler mostly had been a silent partner through the misery and makeover.

He exited the locker room before it was open to the media after Sunday night’s loss in Orlando, wasn’t available for comment in the wake of Tuesday’s trade of confidant and friend Kyle Lowry to the Charlotte Hornets, and then declined to speak following Wednesday night’s loss to an injury-ravaged Memphis Grizzlies roster.

But in the wake of Thursday night’s 143-110 humiliation at the hands of the Boston Celtics at Kaseya Center that extended the Heat’s losing streak to five, Butler made clear where he stands as his team staggers.

“Our offense has been horrendous the past couple of games,” he said. “The defense hasn’t been too much better, either.”

Since Butler returned from a seven-game absence with a toe sprain, the Heat’s lone victory has been a one-point overtime decision against the Brooklyn Nets.

Otherwise, it had been offensive ineptitude surpassed only by Thursday’s defensive despair.

“Don’t nobody want to lose, especially lose five games in a row,” Butler said of the Heat’s longest losing streak since a six-game skid in March 2021. “But before you can start thinking about winning games, I just feel like everybody’s got to get back to having fun again.

“Yes, losing is not fun and winning is, but if we ain’t playing with like some high energy, smiling and all that good stuff, it can get a lot worse.”

That 2020-21 season was when the Heat went from the 2020 NBA Finals to being swept out of the first round of the 2021 playoffs by the Milwaukee Bucks.

Now, the Heat find themselves amid similar doubts in the wake of last season’s run to the NBA Finals.

Told that coach Erik Spoelstra envisions a breakthrough, Butler spoke as if there was no other option.

“We better feel that way,” Butler said, with Saturday’s nationally televised game against the surging New York Knicks up next at Madison Square Garden. “You got to win sooner or later, right? That’s the way I’m looking at it. We got to start doing things the right way on both sides of the ball.”

While the 143 points allowed to the Celtics was cringeworthy, the 110 points Thursday were the Heat’s high over an eight-game stretch that saw them otherwise reach 100 only three times.

“I think the way the offense was running the first three quarters was good,” Butler said, “but still not where we needed to be. We just got to be better in so many different aspects in the game.

“We’re in that cycle again, once we’re not making shots or the offense isn’t going the way that we want it to go, we don’t play defense. That’s the cycle.”

Butler said the failures have been beyond Xs and Os, particularly Thursday’s defensive debauchery.

“There were bad switches. The help was bad. The contests were bad. The closeouts were bad. It was just all bad,” he said. “It didn’t matter if we were switching or in a drop, we weren’t running nobody off the line. We weren’t making ’em miss. So any coverage that we decided to throw out there, we didn’t do it as players.

“I don’t care what Spo says. This ain’t on him. This ain’t on none of the coaches. This is on us. We’re the ones that’s out there playing. We’re the ones out there that’s supposedly competing.”

Albeit with a new look, with Terry Rozier in from the Hornets and Lowry out.

“I mean, I think it can be a positive thing, a new face, yes,” Butler said of the addition of Rozier. “The scoring that he brings, the leadership that he brings, he’s played in the playoffs a bunch with that Boston team. And I mean he’s just a hell of a player. He’s smiling. He’s happy. And I think that’s going to become very contagious. He’s going to be the ring leader for that.”

But lost in that equation was Lowry, who is godfather to Butler’s daughter.

“That’s my brother,” Butler said of Lowry. “Like I tell everybody, basketball is not going to change the bond that we have, the bond that we both have with each other’s children. It’s always a family vibe with him. I can call him. I can show up at his house at any point in time. Basketball hasn’t defined me, hasn’t defined him.”

But what is defining the Heat at the moment is karma gone south.

“I just know that we’ve got to stick together through the good and the bad,” Butler said. “And I know this will change, this too shall pass, however you want to put it. We have to go out there and do it. And it’s not going to get any easier, I’ll tell you that.”