Butler: ‘Our belief is at an all-time high’

Denver

— The Miami Heat are searching for inspiration anywhere they can find it, including a tennis great’s record-setting win at the French Open and even their mascot’s quick rebound from a few punches to the face.

Jimmy Butler and the Heat might be down 3-1 in the NBA Finals against the Nuggets heading into Game Five on Monday night in Denver (Tuesday, Manila time), but they hardly consider themselves out.

“Our belief is at an all-time high,” said Butler, whose team is hoping to avoid watching the Nuggets celebrate their first NBA title. “It always has been all year. It always will be.”

From Day One, the Heat have demonstrated their scrappiness. At first, it was in scrimmages against each other in training camp and later in earning the No. 8 seed into the postseason through a second chance in the play-in tournament. They knocked out Giannis Antetokounmpo and Milwaukee in the first round, then the New York Knicks, and rebounded in Game Seven in Boston after squandering 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals.

Bottom line: They’re used to doing things the hard way.

“They love the ultimate challenges and the ultimate compe-

FRED C. LUMBA SPORTS KEN

SPOELSTRA:

Coaches, regardless of the sports discipline they are into, always cling to the principle that they should take one game at a time in a serial championship of this magnitude.

Focus on the game at hand, instead of looking into the entirety of the series, is major reason why this is so.

At a precarious 1-3 tally and on the verge of losing the NBA Finals crown to Denver, the two-time NBA champion coach is telling his boys to concentrate on Game 5 which will be played on the Nuggets’ homecourt. Ouch!

Coach Mike Malone and his Mile High City squad thrashed

Spoelstra and his South Florida platoon in Game 4, 108-95.

The Heat will attempt to duplicate what only one team of 36 NBA ballclubs situated at 1-3 deficit to have made a successful comeback.

The Cleveland Cavaliersstarring Lebron James, Kevin Love and Tristan Thompsonachieved the feat in 2016.

Love, who celebrated the arrival of his first baby Saturday, was signed up in February by Miami.

Spoelstra has sternly told his boys not to give up without a fight.

NBA stats showed that Miami has made seven successful comeback wins after trailing by 10 or more points in the postseason. tition,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “The narratives are not going to decide it. Whatever the analytics are about 3-1, that ain’t going to decide it. It’s going to be decided between those four lines, whose game can get to whose game and ultimately win at the end. That’s what our guys love.”

A little motivation goes a long way, too. They drew encouragement from Serbian great Novak Djokovic earning his men’s-record 23rd Grand Slam singles championship Sunday with a victory over

One Game At A Time

This tied the 2021-22 record which the Golden State Warriors set.

On this reasoning, Spoelstra believes the series is far far from over.

As unlikely as the task appears to be, Miami can still launch a comeback (even if it seems like climbing Mt. Everest) because the Nuggets don’t have four NBA finals victories yet.

As the cliche goes, “it ain’t over till the fat lady sings.”

Spoeltra told the sports media in after Game 4: “We have an incredibly competitive group. We’ve done everything the hard way, and that’s the hard way it’s going to to have to be done right now, again. All we are going to focus on is getting this thing back to Miami.”

Jimmy Butler, for his part being the heart and soul of Miami, knows exactly what is required of him to keep the Heat alive (and kicking still) but it won’t be easy.

He must take the lead and create open situations for 3-point snipers Duncan Robinson, Caleb Martin, Max Strus, Kyle Lowry and Gabe Vincent.

Actually, if you closely observe the Nuggets, they are executing the same strategy except that they have a far better big man in Nikola Jokic than Bam

Casper Ruud.

The Heat are trying to channel the inner belief Djokovic displayed as they face another Serbian standout in Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic.

“(Djokovic) has talked about that mental side of the game,” said Spoelstra, who had no update on the availability of Tyler Herro, the sharpshooting guard sidelined by a hand injury. “We have a very stubborn and defiant group, and I think it’s good to have a little bit of

FBUTLER,

Adebayo in terms of scoring, rebounding and passing.

Which is why Denver’s right foot is already inside the championship door. Jokic is the main reason Murray and company are playing exceptionally better.

It might be unkind for Miami fans to say that the Nuggets will not allow the duo of Butler and Adebayo to spoil what Denver has prepared for a championship party.

Jolic, Murray, Porter, KCP, Brown and company will fight to the finish to win Game 5 and their first NBA crown in 47 years. (Email feedback to fredlumba@yahoo.com.) GOD BLESS THE PHILIPPINES!