IN THE LANE

BUTLER BOOST: An hour before Jimmy Butler learned Thursday he had been bypassed for an All-Star berth, New York Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau spoke of the unique value of the Heat forward, who he coached with the Chicago Bulls and Minnesota Timberwolves.“Jimmy is Jimmy,”Thibodeau said.“I look at him and I don’t think his stats — even though his stats are good — they don’t reflect the true value he has to a team. He’s the ultimate competitor. That transcends everything. He finds ways to win, whether it’s a matchup, a game, a situation. Really, really smart. The way he sees the game is his greatest strength: Playmaking ability. Ability to draw fouls. And create high-value shots for the team. And then, of course, being a two-way player and the fact that he can guard all five positions.”All of that said . . . and conference coaches decided it still wasn’t enough for one of the seven East reserve spots. Expect Butler to be high on the list of injury replacements, if needed.

WAITING GAME: It turns out that Bam Adebayo wasn’t the one in his family sweating out his eventual All-Star selection. That waiting game was the province of his mother, Marilyn Blount.“I was telling my mom she could finally eat today,”Adebayo said of his message to his mother after learning of his second career All-Star selection.“My mom, she has this thing where like if it’s some 50-50 debate and it’s between me or it’s a Game 7, she can’t eat, she can’t function. I don’t know. I don’t know what it is. It’s like she’s just nervous. I just had to text her and say she could finally eat.”As for his mother’s reaction to the Heat’s last-second two-point loss that night in New York? “She probably threw it up during the game,”Adebayo said with a smile.

HARD TRUTH: In many ways, Goran Dragic remains a Heat at heart. That continues to be the case with the hard truths he has expressed during this season with the up-and-down Chicago Bulls, stressing his team lacks the mental wherewithal to compete with the East’s elite.“I’m not saying we can’t get to it, but you have to teach that,” Dragic told the Chicago Tribune.“Most of those games when we’re not making shots, we get good looks and we’re not making shots and it affects our defense. That’s not the case when I played with Miami. We didn’t care if you missed 10 in a row. Our main goal was to play hard on defense. Of course they’re going to score on you, but as long as you put an effort in and you tried to play team ball, you can live with it.”

EAST BEAST: Having missed out on an All-Star berth due to the level of individual talent in the East, Hawks guard Trae Young also cites the conference’s overall team quality, with Atlanta among the teams in chase mode against the Heat for the sixth and final direct seed into the playoffs.“The East is tough, for sure, a little bit tougher than the West now,”Young told the Arizona Republic.“Back in the day, for sure, the West ran the league for a lot of years, but I think the East is — as far as deep — I think the East is definitely tougher. It’s not saying the West got no talent. I think the East is just so tough.”