Jimmy Butler on Heat loss -- 'Got to play exact opposite' Friday

MIAMI — Jimmy Butler remains steadfast in his belief the Miami Heat can turn things around after a frustrating 116-105 loss to the Atlanta Hawks in a play-in tournament game Tuesday night.

But he knows there is plenty to fix heading into Friday's must-win against the winner of Wednesday night's No. 9 vs. No. 10 game between the Toronto Raptors and Chicago Bulls.

«We'd have to stay confident,» Butler said. «We have to know we are capable of winning, if we start out the right way and if we rebound obviously. But it's just, I don't know, shots don't go in, we foul — that's never the recipe for success with us. So come Friday, we've got to play, like, legit the exact opposite that we played tonight.»

One year after taking the eventual champion Boston Celtics to the brink in the conference finals, the Heat became the first seventh-place team to lose in the brief five-year history of the play-in tournament.

As Butler scanned the box score at the postgame podium, he still couldn't believe what he was seeing. Not only did the Heat get pushed around by a young, hungry team that they've handled over the past few years, they got dominated on the boards all night by the Hawks, who outrebounded the Heat 63-39.

«Rebounding was just horrendous,» Butler said. «We didn't put body on body and they got all the rebounds, all the second-chance points. And that was the game.»

That the Heat were outworked was a common theme inside a quiet Heat locker room. The veteran team looked lethargic early in Tuesday night's game, falling behind by as many as 24 in the first half, and never recovered.

«There's probably been a little bit more than a half dozen times, maybe eight to 10 times, where we have not rebounded where it has just been absolutely