Anyone else saying it and you scoff, because the reality of a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals is that after three months in the league's quarantine bubble at Disney World this all could be over Friday night.
But when Jimmy Butler says it, deride at your own risk, considering the unexpected heights he already has lifted the Miami Heat in his first season with the team.
"Our confidence ain't going nowhere. It's going to stay high," the All-Star forward said. "I'm going to make sure that it stays high, because it's going to have to be at an all-time high."
For the first time since Butler signed his four-year, $142 million contract on July 6, 2019, the Heat is facing closing time, yet to face an elimination game this postseason ... until now.
And Butler has no patience for any talk about the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers being the only team to rebound from such a deficit in the NBA Finals, nor about how the Denver Nuggets twice earlier in these playoffs overcame 3-1.
No, this never has been about previous playoffs or other teams, but merely the bond of a team that came together in this pandemic-created isolation and has stood side-by-side and lived room-next-to-room since July 8.
"We know we got to be better. We know that we can be better," Butler said before the Heat took Wednesday off ahead of Friday's Game 5 at the Wide World of Sports complex near Orlando.
Being better needs to involve a three-game winning streak against the stacked deck of LeBron James and Anthony Davis and some Lakers players who had been erratic three-point shooters much of the season who are now making three-point shots consistently — or it's over.
