Butler: ‘This year is our year.’ And Celtic player says Heat won’t out-tough them.

There are several constants with Jimmy Butler: toughness, exceptional footwork in the post, immaculate conditioning.

And Butler’s supreme confidence belongs on that list, too. That quality was on display Tuesday when he said:

“This year is our year. We’re going to go into this Game 1 and do what we’re supposed to do and be the first one to four. We are very capable of it. We have enough. Guys are playing some incredible basketball. I like our chances, as does everyone in this organization.”

Butler generally speaks in these terms, so this wasn’t unusual bravado as Miami prepares for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals on Wednesday in Boston (8:30 p.m., TNT).

He prefaced his comments by saying: “I mean [it] every year when I say we are going to win a championship.”

And he offered praise for the Celtics:

“They got scorers, defenders, facilitators. There’s not too much they do bad. If there’s ever a need for perfect basketball, even though it’s not really a thing, we better get as close to it as we can.”

Butler believes his confidence spreads to teammates.

“They hear the way I talk,” he said. “They hear the way I go about everything. I back down from no challenge. Therefore we back down from no challenge.

“We’re so grateful to be able to do what we do every day and be around the guys and the coaches and organization and ownership we have. We’re comfortable. We’re confident. We know it’s not going to be easy. Confidence, I don’t think that’s something any of us lack.”

THIS AND THAT

Butler, asked if the ankle injury that sidelined him for Game 2 of the Knicks series is back to 100 percent, said: “I feel good enough.”

▪ Celtics guard Jaylen Brown told Boston reporters on Tuesday that the Heat has “got a tremendous story, being able to go all the way from the play-in and just steamroll through the playoffs. We’ve just got to come out and set the tone with our energy and try to cool them off a little bit.”

Brown said this Heat team “is not the same team” as the one that the Celtics beat, 4-3, in last year’s Eastern Conference finals.

“Jimmy is still Jimmy and Spo [Spoelstra] is still Spo,” Brown said. “But we’ve got to make sure that we’re aware to everybody else – Kevin Love, some of the new guys that they got,” he said.

▪ Celtics guard Malcolm Brogdon, the one new addition to the Celtics’ rotation this season, said the Heat has out-toughed most of its opponents “but that’s not going to happen with us.”

▪ Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said center Robert Williams will continue to start, as he did alongside center/power forward Al Horford in the final two games (both wins) against Philadelphia in the previous round.

Williams and Horford started together in last year’s Eastern Conference finals.

▪ Spoelstra, on the Philadelphia 76ers dismissing coach Doc Rivers on Wednesday following the recent firings of Mike Budenholzer (Milwaukee) and Monty Williams (Phoenix): “It’s disturbing. Doc’s a Hall of Famer. ... There’s only so many teams that can advance. It’s just a really hard thing to do. Yeah, it’s been a tough couple weeks, hearing the news of just some really surprising firings.”

▪ Heat center Cody Zeller, who missed Monday’s practice because he wasn’t feeling well, will be available for Game 1, the team said.

Everybody on the Heat is available for Game 1 except Tyler Herro (hand surgery) and Victor Oladipo (foot surgery).

Here’s my Tuesday piece on Heat culture and what NBA people say about it.