P.J. Tucker thanks Draymond Green for motivation to beat C’s originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Miami Heat used Draymond Green’s words as motivation in their Game 6 win over the Boston Celtics on Friday night.
After the Golden State Warriors finished off the Dallas Mavericks to advance to the NBA Finals, Green confidently picked the Celtics to advance out of the Eastern Conference.
Celtics-Heat takeaways: Jimmy Butler forces Game 7 with 47-point outburst
“If you’re asking me who I want to play, I’m going to tell you who I think we’re going to play. We’re going to play Boston. That’s who we’re going to play,” Green told TNT’s “Inside the NBA”.
For that to happen, the Celtics will need to beat the Heat at FTX Arena on Sunday night. Miami forced a Game 7 with a 111-103 win at TD Garden behind a 47-point effort from Jimmy Butler.
After the game, Heat forward P.J. Tucker thanked Green for the bulletin-board material.
“Tell Draymond I said I appreciate it,” he told ESPN.
He expanded on Miami’s reaction to Green’s statement during his postgame press conference.
“It’s funny. We laughed. I thought it was funny,” Tucker said. “‘Cause he knows better than anybody, we still gotta play the game. There’s no guarantees anybody will win in this league. These games have been crazy. They’ve been unpredictable all series. Beating each other at each other’s homes. We’re both great home teams and, you know, it’s just been crazy. So it’s kind of weird to be a player and pick another team.”
It sure sounds like the Heat took Green’s words to heart, and it showed with their effort on Friday night. The Celtics will have their work cut out for them on Sunday if Butler and Co. bring the same energy.
Tip-off for Game 7 is set for 8:30 p.m. ET. Coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. with Celtics Pregame Live on NBC Sports Boston.