Butler scores 30 in return as Heat sneak past Kings
The dire pronouncements about the 6-12 record the Miami Heat carried into the night largely overlooked one significant factor: Jimmy Butler had played in only 5 ½ of those games.
Back Saturday night after 10 games in the NBA’s pandemic protocols, Butler loudly announced his return with a season-high 30 points in a 105-104 victory over the Sacramento Kings at AmericanAirlines Arena.
“You simply cannot put a modern-day analytic to Jimmy’s will to win,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
Having also missed 2 ½ games due to an ankle sprain, Butler offered a reminder of the Heat’s possibilities with him back in the lineup, even as the Heat played in the continued injury absences of Goran Dragic, Avery Bradley and Moe Harkless, among others.
“That’s just iron will,” Spoelstra said. “He was not going to let us lose, no matter what it took.”
After Butler carried the Heat with 20 first-half points, when the Heat never led by more than one, his teammates then stepped up to help snap a five-game losing streak.
“I figured I was going to come back and we were going to win,” Butler said.
It wasn’t necessarily pretty, with the Heat going up 11 early in the fourth quarter, only to see the Kings in possession down one with 4.6 seconds to play.
On that play, Butler and the Heat forced a Kings scramble and a missed 17-foot shot by Richaun Holmes, as the buzzer sounded.
Bam Adebayo added 18 points and 13 rebounds for the Heat, with Tyler Herro scoring 15, Duncan Robinson 14 and Kelly Olynyk 11. Butler added eight assists and seven rebounds.
“The sun is coming back,” Adebayo said. “We’ve got to keep the sun out, keep fighting, keep playing hard, so we can get back to the Heat that made it to the Finals.”
De’Aaron Fox led the Kings with 30 points.
“The Heat is back on,” Herro said with a smile as he started his postgame interview. “It’s just a steppingstone, just one box that we checked, finally got a win.
“It was great to have our leader back out there.”
Five Degrees of Heat from Saturday’s game:
1. Closing time: Up 11 earlier in the period, the Heat fell behind 104-103 with 1:44 to play when Buddy Hield stripped Adebayo of a rebound and then converted a 3-pointer, for Sacramento’s first lead of the fourth quarter.
The steal was the Kings’ 12th of the night, giving them a season high.
Butler then busted inside for a driving layup with 42 seconds to play and a 105-104 Heat lead.
But with 4.6 seconds to play, the Heat were called for a 24-second violation, when a Robinson 3-point attempt under duress from the left corner failed to hit the rim.
That set up the Kings’ decisive sequence, and Holmes’ miss, with Adebayo saying he got a fingertip on the ball.
“It was just the relief to be able to get a win,” Herro said. “It feels like we’ve had a lack of urgency in
a couple of games.”
2. Butler back: Butler was back for the first time since the Heat’s Jan. 9 victory in Washington.
With his 18th point of the first half, a 9-foot jumper, Butler reached 10,000 career points. Later, in the third quarter, his fourth rebound gave him 3,000 for his career.
“Didn’t even know it, to tell you the truth,” Butler said of reaching 10,000 points. “So here’s to a couple more points, I guess.”
Butler accounted for 23 Heat points in the second period, 14 of his own and nine off his assists.
“It’s always good to win,” Butler said. “It’s time to start stringing together Ws.”
3. Still active: The question about Adebayo’s recent breakout had been whether it would continue with Butler back.
The answer, including continued productivity from midrange Saturday, was yes. He closed 7 of 11 from the field, adding four assists.
“We feed off each other, and we did that tonight,” Adebayo said. “It’s good to have him back, man.
“He’s watched my growth. We talked about it. He wants the ball in my hands. He wants me to make plays.”
4. Another one: Make it 14 lineups in the Heat’s 19 games
This time it was KZ Okpala making the start at power forward in place of Kelly Olynyk.
Saturday’s opening unit of Okpala, Butler, Adebayo, Robinson and Herro had played a total of two minutes together prior to Saturday night.
That group then went out and fell behind 14-5, leading to a timeout with 7:38 left in the opening period. Olynyk then entered for Okpala after the Heat fell behind 20-9.
Okpala did not play in the second half, with Olynyk with the starters at the start of the third period.
“This is not an indictment or evaluation of anybody,” Spoelstra said.
5. Rotation roulette: Despite a recent reemergence, Kendrick Nunn was shuffled out of the rotation, first with Gabe Vincent playing ahead of him in the first half and then Max Strus the choice in the second half.
Nunn had scored in double figures in seven consecutive games entering the night.
It turns out Nunn’s coronavirus test results did not come back until the start of the second quarter, with Spoelstra, by then, into his rotation.
“We were waiting for his test results,” Spoelstra said. “At that point he wasn’t available in the first quarter, so I went a different direction. And then just didn’t go back to it. It’s just one of those unfortunate things. I guess if those type of things are going to happen, it’ll happen to us. We’ll test it out first, and then find a way to make it work.”