“Damn right, I did" - Jimmy Butler says he knew that the Heat were gonna be this good in the playoffs

Miami Heat superstar Jimmy Butler seemed confident of his team's ability to go up against the higher-ranked teams in the conference. In an interview after Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals, Butler made sure that this faith in his team was made loud and clear.

Butler and the Miami Heat have been nothing short of spectacular in this year's postseason. After a fairly mediocre display through the regular season, the Heat barely managed to secure a Play-In spot.

However, since beating the Chicago Bulls for the eighth spot in the East, Miami has been on an absolute warpath.

After bumping the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in five games, the Heat dismantled the underdog New York Knicks in six. As of Wednesday night, they have also stolen Game 1 against the title-favorite Boston Celtics on the road.

Miami Heat v Boston Celtics - Game One

After the game, Butler was asked whether he thought Miami would make such a run in the playoffs. The superstar responded by saying:

(Watch Butler's comments from 5:29 onwards)

"Damn right, I did. Damn right, we did. And the best part about it is we still don't care what none of y’all think. Honestly speaking, we don’t care if you pick us to win. We never have, we never will. We know the group of guys we have in this locker room."

"Our circle is small but this circle got so much love for one another, we pumped. Constant confidence in everybody. We go out there and we hoop. We play basketball the right way knowing that we always got a chance."

With a 1-0 lead in the ECF series, the Heat are one step closer to the NBA Finals. With the team locked in for the rest of the series, Miami looks primed to finish the series early.

Check This Out: Watch- Jimmy Butler hits a dagger 3 as the shot clock expires

---

Jimmy Butler was masterful in Game 1

The trend of Jimmy Butler taking over in unlikely games continued against the Boston Celtics. Although the C's were leading 66-57 going into the second half, Butler and the Miami Heat had other plans.

Butler scored 20 of his 35 points of the night in the second half to lead Miami's comeback on the road. A massive 46-point third-quarter surge by the Heat helped them take a definitive lead going into the fourth.

Butler's efforts were supported by some valuable contributions from the rest of the team as well. Bam Adebayo put up 20 points on the night. Meanwhile, Gabe Vincent, Max Strus, Caleb Martin and Kyle Lowry all had 15 points each.