Butler powers Heat over Pacers
Exhibit A of how the Miami Heat can wear you down came in Game 1 of their opening-round playoff series Tuesday against the Indiana Pacers.
Against an opponent that started shorthanded and quickly become even more undermanned, the Heat shook off a shaky start and an uneven third quarter to hold off the Indiana Pacers, 113-101.
“It’s a collective unit,” center Bam Adebayo said. “The five out there, we don’t care who scores. That’s the big thing I like about this team, we don’t care who scores. As long as we win at the end of the day, that’s all we worry about.”
The victory at the start of the best-of-seven series at Disney’s Wide World of Sports was fueled by 28 points Jimmy Butler, 24 from Goran Dragic, 17 from Adebayo and 15 from Tyler Herro.
A pair of late, and unlikely, 3pointers by Butler and 14 fourthquarter points by Goran Dragic put it away.
“Both of them,” coach Erik Spoelstra said, “made big plays in the fourth quarter.”
For the Pacers, it turned into T.J. Warren, Malcolm Brogdon or bust, with each scoring 22.
With All-Star forward Domantas Sabonis already away from the Pacers due to a foot issue, Indiana lost former All-Star guard Victor Oladipo for the game in the first quarter after he was inadvertently poked in the eye by the Heat’s Jae Crowder.
Game 2 is Thursday at 1 p.m., with all games played in the void of fans in the quarantine setting at Disney World, amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
More observations from Tuesday’s game: 1. The death lineup: No, it may not be to the level of what the championship Golden State Warriors had with Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala, but the Heat unveiled a pseudo “death lineup” of their own to put it away in their 32-21 fourth quarter.
That’s when Spoelstra went with the quintet of Butler, Adebayo, Dragic, Herro, and yes Iguodala.
“You’ve got a mix of great offensive players, great defensive players, decision-makers, shooting, all of the above,” Butler said of that unit.
It was the first time that group had ever played together.
“I wasn’t worried about it, because in the playoffs anything happens,” Adebayo said. “I feel like Spo did a great job of getting adjusted. And at that point, we got to get it together. So we’ve got to come as a unit and figure it out. We were figuring it out and it was clicking for us.”
2. Butler’s threes: Butler closed the regular-season a career worst .244 on 3-pointers, at 29 of 119.
But with 3:26 to play, he pulled up and drained a 27-footer for a 104-95 lead. Then, with 2:29 to play, there was a 25-footer for a 107-95 lead. They were his only 3-point attempts of the game.
It was the first time Butler converted multiple 3-pointers in a game since Feb. 3 and the first time he even made one since March 2.
“I yell at him all the time to shoot the ball,” Adebayo said. “He does the same thing with me, like, ‘Shoot the ball. Shoot the ball.’ And tonight it just clicked where he listened to me and he made two big threes.”
Said Butler, “I take what the games gives me.”