To beat the Heat, Sixers have to cut Playoff Jimmy down to size
The nightmare standing between the Sixers and a rude awakening in the NBA’s play-in tournament is Jimmy Butler.
Playoff Jimmy, as he’s known by the victims, is a guy so driven by criticism, trash talk and innuendo the last thing you want to do is offer him a challenge. Even unwittingly, like mentioning that he’s 34.
Sixers guard Kelly Oubre Jr., who will take his turn trying to defend Butler when the Sixers oppose the Heat Wednesday at Wells Fargo Center (7 p.m., ESPN), can be borderline psycho. The NBA fined him $50,000 for “verbally abusing and directing an obscene gesture toward game officials” after he disputed a call in the Sixers’ 108107 loss to the Clippers a few weeks ago at the Center.
With the second season here Oubre wisely chose not to mention anything that Playoff Jimmy could use against him or the Sixers. Like asking how to defend Butler, which likely will include himself, Tobias Harris, Nico Batum and possibly even Tyrese Maxey.
“I’m not giving him no secrets,” Oubre said at a media availability. “He’s smart. He watches this type of stuff and he gets fueled by anything. He’s a great basketball player. I look forward to going against all the great basketball players in this league, and you know, adding my name up there.”
Adding his name up there? OK, it was an innocent Oubre slip. Hopefully Butler doesn’t lock in on it.
Who knows how Sixers fans might have set off Butler — who had led the 76ers to within a Kawhi Leonard jump shot of the Eastern Conference finals in 2019 — to erupt for 30 points and eight boards with the Heat to eliminate the Sixers in the 2022 NBA semifinals at the Center?
Who knew a 33-year-old Butler, who had to win twice with the Heat in the play-in round to keep them breathing last year, could score 56 points to almost personally wipe out a 14-point fourthquarter deficit and defeat the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in the playoffs? The Heat reached the NBA finals before falling to the Denver Nuggets.
Does anybody know what makes Playoff Jimmy so difficult to defend?
“They get the ball in his hands a lot,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse said. “Multi-level scorer. He’s going to drive it, that’s probably first and foremost. It not only creates his offense but creates a lot of offense for others. He’s got a post-up game. If you’re going to be into switching, they’re going to try to put him in there if they feel they have an advantage there, which throws you into a whole other set of schemes.
“Are you doubling? Are you not doubling? When are you doubling? Where are you doubling from? Are you rotating out? All those kinds of things. And then you’ve got to decide are you in position at some point of the game where you’re going to try to get the ball out of his hands, which means are you going to send people on the perimeter? If they’re in a screen and roll, are you going to double him?”
Nurse said all that so smoothly and rationally it was dizzying. Make no mistake, those are some of the same headaches Sixers star Joel Embiid poses for the opposition. Hopefully Embiid and his banged-up left knee can be close to 100 percent for the Heat.
Miami center Bam Adebayo always makes Embiid earn his numbers. The Sixers also must defend him and Duncan Robinson, Tyler Herro and others who can get red hot. But it starts with Butler.
“I usually say you’ve got to make those guys work for all their touches,” Nurse said. “You’ve got to have a lot of different matchups ready to go on him personnel-wise, and then you’ve got to have a bunch of schemes ready to go and see which ones you need to use.”
The Sixers are in a strange spot. As the seventh seed, they could lose to the Heat and still be alive for the eighth spot in the East playoffs, providing they defeat the winner of the 8-9 play-in between the Atlanta Hawks and Chicago Bulls.
However, the reward for winning Wednesday and entering
the first-round bestof-7 series as the seventh seed is playing the second-seeded York Knicks rather than the Boston Celtics, who are the top seed.
“This is where we’re at as a team,” Harris said. “We’re confident. We know what’s
at stake here and we’re not looking for any sympathy on how our season has gone. We obviously understand where we are right now and all we’re looking forward to is our next opponent and being ready to win and go forward into the playoffs now.”