Ira Winderman, South Florida Sun Sentinel Miami Heat Reporter

Ira, how are you?

I am good. I am still in a state of shock and not even as much about winning last night here in Boston, but the fact is that after being in the playing round, I'm still working in late May. I did not see this coming, Zach. Not only in the playing round, the second playing game down late in the fourth quarter. I know we always give the Heat the benefit of the doubt and we talk about how scrappy they are in the Heat culture, but this is really unreal. No, I mean it really is. It's like these teams that make up a ton of games late in the standings.

You never saw it coming. It's similar to that and yet it was so dramatic and yet here we are about six weeks removed from that and it seemed so long ago because you look at the Miami Heat like you said about how last night was not a shock at TV Garden and the way they're playing and you say to yourself this is a pretty good team and this is a pretty good supporting cast and this is arguably the best player in the NBA right now. I'm not saying Jimmy Butler is better than your leading men in the league, but right now if you were to ask me on today's date who's playing best in the NBA, there are like four teams left, I'd have to tell you Jimmy Butler especially after Jason Tatum's fourth quarter last night. And he's just an absolute killer and you could talk about the 35 points he had last night, but the six steals, Ira, are the most impressive point to me. Yeah and the pull-up three at the end. You know between you and me, so anyone who's listening out there cover your ears, Jimmy really wanted to come out and shoot a three to start the game to sort of pick up where he left off last year in that game seven against Boston, make a statement, he wins the tip, he'll go down, he'll shoot a three, he'll show he's over it from that this shot.

Didn't quite happen that way and yet with a little over a minute to go, the game on the line, there he was shooting a similar pull-up three, albeit later in the shot clock, basically putting the game away last night. So Jimmy remembers, Jimmy sort of takes names, so yeah the fact that they're up one nothing on Boston, they remember what happened in game seven last year and I, you know, I think just because they think they're in this position now, they really are looking to seize the moment and no one saw it coming. I remember I was at Jimmy Butler's introductory press conference when he quickly became a Philadelphia 76er and that was right after everything that transpired in Minnesota and a lot of those questions were about how he wasn't a great teammate and all that stuff and he's just taken really his game to the next level and not only that, he's a big time leader. What has changed with Jimmy Butler throughout the years in your opinion? You know what, I think when you go back and you look at Chicago and the team they had there that he was on and then you go to Minnesota and you have Kat there, then you go to Philadelphia and you had Joel, he's never really been the leading man and let's face it, there are guys in this week who seek out that moment. For every Kevin Durant who goes off to join up with people, be it in Golden State or in Brooklyn or in Phoenix, there are guys who want to be the man, who want to have that opportunity and that's one what Jimmy was looking for and number two, he was looking for a place where there was enough structure. It's almost like Jimmy knows he could be an SOB at times. We all remember that practice in Minnesota when he shows up and basically is playing in his street clothes with his Rolex still on, kicks some butt with the third team, storms out of the gym, all of a sudden he's on sports center with Rachel Nichols. I think Jimmy sort of realized he needed some structure also and that's what the Pat Riley School for Wayward Kids does.

He found his perfect match. We've seen this with the Heat so many times before, whether it's Tim Hardaway resurrecting his career, Anthony Mason becoming an all-star with the Heat and now Jimmy is just the latest in that lineage. Ira Winderman here with us. As great as Butler has been the last few games of Bam out of Bio have been extremely impressive and that's been a rollercoaster ride of emotions the last few years. Heat fans, some days they love Bam out of Bio, other days they're like okay get him off the team. What have you seen out of Bam recently? You know Bam has a subtle game that is appreciated by sort of basketball insiders and what he does and the way he defends all five positions and the way he boxes out the way he does all the things that may not get you to all NBA but make your team a winner and he's the perfect balance for Jimmy because he's not out there seeking the glory.

If you remember I think it was two games ago at the Consega Center in Miami, the Heat were coming off a win. Bam had a podium moment. He was on the podium and all of a sudden only Bam out of Bio can do he goes wait a minute this is my mommy that's what he calls his mom and he took her phone call on national TV on NBA TV that night. So he's the perfect yin and yang to who Jimmy Butler is. That Jimmy wants it all.

That Jimmy does the entrance when he walks into the arena to be noticed and he comes in his own black car and he travels on his own and Bam's just sort of the guy who just wants to be a guy. That's why it's really worked between those two. It didn't work with Kat and with Karl-Anthony Towns in Minnesota. One game I remember when he went at him and scored him he called him soft as baby.

I'll say the word poop instead. If you remember in Philadelphia when they won the series last year he just was screaming in the hallway they kept Tobias Harris instead of me. So you know Jimmy sort of that guy Bam's the opposite guy. He wants to be workman-like.

He wants to be appreciated but he doesn't necessarily need the limelight so that pairing has worked out really well. And in the postgame press conference last night Ira Winterman all you did was point out the game one success. Why was Bam so upset with you? You know I have this relationship with guys because one it's been a long season. I've been with them since pre-season. So you know it's sort of like the wife sometimes she just wants to turn over and not hear from you anymore.

So we kid each other. Jimmy's done the same thing to me and people go man what's between you two and it's like I'll give you an example okay. The Heat win the series in Milwaukee. The ultimate upset probably in this season's playoffs no matter what else happens the rest of the way.

Matter of fact I wouldn't even call Heat over Celtics as big as Heat over Bucks. So after the last game of that series Jimmy's walking out to do his interview and I go hey Jimmy nice game and he turns around he goes yeah this morning you didn't even say hello to me. And it was funny because earlier in the day in fact you know this because you cover a lot of sports. There's certain things you don't do in sports. You never go into the baseball clubhouse and talk to the pitcher who's pitching that day.

He's off limits. You never at the morning skate talk to the goalie who's playing that night. So I thought in the morning shoot around I'm going to give Jimmy his space because he is super laser focused in the morning and then he does that to me.

It reminded me of a story Christian Laitner you remember when he was with Minnesota starting his career. First year he was in there me Tom DeAngelo from the Palm Beach Post, Amy Shipley from the Miami Herald we walked up to him and started asking questions. And he goes to us is that how you interact with people? You don't say hi who I am.

How are you doing and hello. You just throw questions at me. A year later I go up to Christian Laitner same timber wool locker room and I go hey Christian Ira Winderman from the Sun Sentinel and he turns to me and he goes yeah like I care. So you just sort of deal with this stuff over the years. That's fun.

I ruined it here with us right now. I'm also in those postgame press conferences last night. Every heat player went out of their way to say that they don't look at themselves as underdogs even though they hear everything that's being said about them. It doesn't get inside the locker room. That has to be used as motivation. That's just a cliche athlete line right.

Yeah you know what it is motivation for this reason. All along people are going okay with Tyler Herro out Jimmy we know we can give us 30 maybe a 40 piece who knows maybe a 50 piece along the way. But who's going to be the other 30 pints scorer. Bam as we talked about that's not in his nature.

He's more of a fill the box score guy. But what we saw last night is instead of one or two teammates also scoring 30 you are Kyle Lowry with 15 Caleb Martin with 15 Gabe Vincent with 15 and Max Truce with 15. You have four guys giving you 15 instead of two guys giving you 30. That to me crystallized who this Miami Heat team is. I know you win with star talent in the NBA but the Heat are taking a little bit of a different path with this playoff run. What did you see change in that third quarter because I was wondering what type of Boston you would get in the first half and I was kind of expecting them to no show. They showed up in the first half Boston but they failed to show up in the third.

You saw the arrogance of team of a team who thought it would be easy. Who after going seven hard-fought games against the 76ers had the type of first half where they said we're finally done with Embiid. We're finally done with Harden. We're finally done with Maxey.

Now we have an easier series. We got these number eight-seated guys you know the balloons about to burst for them and they exhaled and the one thing about the junkyard dog Miami Heat of 22-23 they don't exhale and they saw sort of the raw steak laying out for them and they started chomping on it and that's the difference. I don't think the Celtics Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown took the Heat seriously enough and by the time they caught themselves it was like holy crap we're down eight points. Jason Tatum is also frustrating because he is a great player. We got to see what he did in that game seven but in the fourth quarter last night he didn't even take a field goal attempt like that's inconceivable to me even with how great the Heat defense is. Yeah I think that's rookie coach also.

I think you know Reggie Miller and Stan Van Gundy were talking about it on the broadcast. When a guy's coming off the 51 burger and he doesn't get a shot early enough you call a timeout you run a set for him. You iso him. You get him to the foul line. You get him going. That's the thing I still believe in this series which I think very well can go seven and certainly can be won easily by Boston but they certainly could have their way still the rest of the way is the coaching matchup.

Eric Spolstra has seen and done it all. Joe Missoula is throwing his coach's pad on the bench. He's saying he doesn't call timeouts because he wants to get them out of their problems. He calls two timeouts too early. We do those silly things you know those matchups. Who's better at center? Who's better at power forward?

We tend to say well that's one point for this team one point for that team. I'd say when you assess the differences in this team the coaching difference is so significant that I think that's where the Heat have a significant edge that the Celtics even with the talent of Dylan Brown and Jason Tatum and Marcus Smart still have to overcome. Joe Missoula might become a great coach but remember remember Eric Spolstra in the first year of the Big Three. No one when the Heat were losing to the Mavericks in the 2011 final said hey this guy's going to the Hall of Fame one day.

It still takes time. When did you realize that Spolstra was going to be a great coach because when he had the Big Three no matter what he did everyone nationally was like okay anyone could coach this team but since then even though he hasn't won a finals he has proven that right now he's pound for pound in my opinion the best coach in the sport. Because he can take whatever you give him and make him something. I'm going to tell you I saw it even before the Big Three. I don't mean to condescend here and I love Michael as a person. He got Michael Beasley to the playoffs.

I mean think about that. In 2009 he got to a game seven against the Atlanta Hawks and the year after he played a series against the Boston Celtics when he had nothing. And then after the Big Three when you have years and were you actually just the years when he had Dwayne Wade in like Jermaine O'Neal and they made the playoffs.

I mean look at what he did that one season. You might remember they started 11 and 30 and the second half of the season they went 30 and 11. What other team doesn't quit in that situation? In the lottery chasing NBA what team doesn't say ah forget it this is going nowhere.

Instead they were alive until the final game of the season when the Nets had all their players and Chicago got the last playoff spot. That just tells me he you know that's who Eric is. He'll find a way. Tyler here is out. He'll find a way. Victor Oladipo is out.

He'll find a way. Look at game two in New York. Jimmy Buckler was out and it was in three points in the final two minutes.

He loves trying to find a way. You go back to that Buck series. They win game one then game two. The Heat barely even showed up. What type of Heat team do you see tomorrow night with an opportunity to take two on the road in Boston?

You know that's the story I wrote today at the Sun Sentinel. I wrote that look at the Milwaukee series. Game two not very good. Game two in New York of course Jimmy was out but they fell behind by eight earlier in trouble. Also look at last year the first two games were Miami against Boston. The Heat won game one of that series in the Easter conference finals also and then got slaughtered in game two at what was FTX arena at the time RIP FTX. So when you look at it the Heat have plenty of examples. I think Eric Spulstra can come out and show them all of that and basically ask them you've taken the hard way all season. Perhaps we try a little different way right now and I think Jimmy with some of his best play late last night I think that was a good sign and the fact that he had so many contributors that if maybe one of those guys is off another guy maybe a Duncan Robinson or someone steps up.

I think the Heat will be more competitive than I think some people think in a game that's going to be pretty desperate for the Celtics. Longtime Heat reporter Ira Winterburn covers the team for the Sun-Sentinel. Ira thanks so much. Hey and I gave you a Christian Laitner story also. My pleasure Zach. Thank you.