Heat's Jimmy Butler Says 'Nobody's Satisfied' After Game 7 Win Over Celtics

Jimmy Butler isn't a stranger to this stage.

The Eastern Conference Finals MVP led the Miami Heat to their second NBA Finals appearance in the last four seasons Monday night with a Game 7 win over the Boston Celtics.

So, he knows there's still a lot of work to be done if they want to cap off one of the most incredible postseason runs in NBA history. And that's the standard that he's gotten used to since arriving in South Beach.

"I just know why Coach Pat [Riley] and Coach Spo [Erik Spoelstra] wanted me to be here," Butler said postgame. "That's to compete at a high level and win championships. ... Nobody's satisfied. We haven't done anything. We don't play just to win the Eastern Conference. We play to win the whole thing."

The last time Butler and the Heat got to the Finals was in the bubble in 2020 where they fell just short of the title after losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games.

And while some of the role players have changed over the last couple of years, the team's core of Butler and Bam Adebayo remains the same as the Heat look to become the first eighth seed in NBA history to win the title.

Butler, who came agonizingly short last year in the conference finals, promised that his team would be back in the same position in 2023 and come out on top.

It turns out he was a prophet as he was the catalyst that drove Miami to the win.

He had a game-high 28 points, seven rebounds, six assists and three steals in the closeout Game 7 at TD Garden and responded to every Celtics run in the second half as they tried to mount a comeback.

The Heat will now have yet another massive mountain to climb in the Finals as they take on a well-rested Nuggets team that swept the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals and is riding a phenomenal postseason from two-time league MVP Nikola Jokić.

The NBA Finals begin Thursday at 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC.