Heat’s Butler, Williams address forehead-to-forehead exchange. And Tatum struggling late

The moment Boston’s Grant Williams hit a three-pointer and started trash-talking Jimmy Butler, the moment Butler then scored on the other end and went forehead-to-forehead with Williams, Heat forward Caleb Martin sensed what would happen next.

“I knew that would be good for us,” Martin said. “We’ll take mad Jimmy any time.”

When Williams hit that three and started yapping, the Celtics were up nine with 6:37 left. From there, the Heat outscored the Celtics, 24-9, to close to its 111-105 win, an avalanche that began with Butler immediately attacking Williams on the other end, hitting a shot, and drawing a foul.

Like caribou interlocking antlers, Butler and Williams then went face to face, jabbering at each other, each calling for technical fouls.

Butler scored 9 of the Heat’s final 24 points after Williams started running his mouth. Boston finished the game shooting 2 for 10, with three turnovers, after that Williams three, and now finds itself down 2-0 in this series, with Game 3 on Sunday in Miami (8:30 p.m., TNT).

Williams - who rejoined the Celtics rotation after not playing at all in Game 1 - expressed no remorse, and certainly no regrets, afterward.

“I’m a competitor and I’m going to battle,” Williams said. “He got the best of me tonight, and at the end of the day, it’s out of respect, because I’m not gonna run away from it.

“My mom always taught me, and my dad as well, you get your [butt] kicked and you don’t come back home until you come battle again. You either come back and you die or you come back and go get a win. And I’m not willing to die in this [playoff round]. I’m ready to [expletive] get a win.”

Williams said he never worried that Butler would take control of the game after he started trash-talking the Heat’s star.

“None of that,” Williams said. “You expect to beat the best. No matter if I lit him up or not, he’s going to do that. For me, it’s a matter of understanding that yeah, sure, you did poke a bear, quote unquote. And how are you going to respond?”

Butler, for his part, said Williams’ chatter was not the reason the Heat won.

“That’s just competition at its finest,” Butler said. “He hit a big shot. Started talking to me; I like that. I’m all for that. It makes me key in a lot more. It pushes that will I have to win a lot more. It makes me smile.

“When people talk to me, I’m like, ‘OK, I know I’m a decent player. If you want to talk to me out of everybody you can talk to.’...

“I do respect him, though. He’s a big part of what they try to do. He switches. He can shoot the ball. I just don’t know if I’m the best person to talk to.”

As Bam Adebayo said afterward: “Things like that always fuel Jimmy.”

Butler also did his share of talking. According to ESPN’s Mark Jones, after Butler scored on Williams, Butler turned to Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla and said “You thought this would work?” and “This is what you wanted.”

Whereas the Heat sent occasional double teams at Jayson Tatum, the Celtics usually covered Butler with just one defender, even as he crushed their soul with a 27-point night.

Asked if he’s considering double-teaming Butler at times in this series, Mazzulla suggested that wasn’t particularly important.

“I think when he misses, we have to get the rebound,” Mazzulla said. “We gave up two very, very critical offensive rebounds. We let Duncan Robinson get loose for a couple threes in the fourth quarter. I think focusing on the role guys getting going is more important than that. When he misses, we have to get the rebound.”

TATUM’S FOURTH QUARTERS

For the second consecutive game, the Heat held Celtics All NBA forward Jayson Tatum without a fourth quarter field goal.

With the Heat often sending a second defender to help, Tatum didn’t even attempt a shot from the field in the fourth quarter of Game 1; he took three in Game 2 and missed all of them, tarnishing a 34-point night.

Tatum has 11 combined points in the two fourth quarters - all on free throws - and five turnovers, with Max Strus and Butler among those involved in creating those mistakes.

“I thought against zone,... he was extremely aggressive,” Mazzulla said. “I thought Jayson just made the right play, got the ball where it needed to go, whether it was him or others.”

Tatum said he did what he could but “sometimes shots just don’t go in. I had the ball a lot. Obviously, I draw a lot of attention [so] I’m creating for others.”

▪ With his team down 2-0, Tatum said: “We’re not dead or anything. I still have the utmost confidence.”

▪ Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has grown weary of questions about the Heat having seven undrafted players, including four rotation players (Gabe Vincent, Strus, Caleb Martin and Robinson).

“So disrespectful to keep on talking about them that way,” Spoelstra said. “These guys have proven themselves as competitors and winning players.”