HEAT RIDING BUTLER’S WAVE
Miami Heat All-Star Jimmy Butler has played the best basketball of his career in the NBA Finals against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers. Another must-win game awaits tonight.
Miami Heat All-Star Jimmy Butler has played the best basketball of his career in the NBA Finals against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.
Jimmy Butler keeps saying the Miami Heat has to play close to a perfect game to defeat the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals.
So far, Butler is playing the most perfect basketball of his NBA career in the championship series.
Butler continued his spectacular play Friday with his second tripledouble in the last three games to help the Heat survive a 40-point performance from Lakers superstar LeBron James. Butler finished Game 5 with 35 points on 11-of-19 shooting from the field and 12-of-12 shooting from the foul line, 12 rebounds, 11 assists and five steals to lead the Heat to a 111-108 season-saving win over the Lakers.
Butler played a seasonhigh 47:12 of the 48 minutes Friday in the mustwin situation, narrowing the Lakers’ series lead to 3-2. Game 6 is Sunday at 7:30 p.m. on ABC, as the Heat hopes to become just the second team in NBA history to rally from a 3-1 hole in the Finals to win the title.
“Nothing,” an exhausted Butler said of what he had left following Friday’s performance. “I left it all out there on the floor along with my guys, and that’s how we’re going to have to play from here on out. Like I always say, it’s win or win for us. But this is the position that we’re in. We like it this way. We got two more in a row to get.”
Win or lose, Butler is having a Finals for the ages.
Butler’s first triple-double of the series came in the Heat’s Game 3 win,
when he finished with 40 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists to become just the third player in NBA history to record a 40-point triple double in the Finals. NBA legend Jerry West and James are the other names on that list.
In addition, Butler is just the sixth player in NBA history to generate multiple triple-double in a single Finals series. Also on that list are: Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, Draymond Green, Magic Johnson and James.
Butler has scored 30 or more points as part of a triple-double performance twice in his NBA career, and both have come in this year’s championship series.
Butler, 31, has averaged 29 points on 55.8 percent shooting, 8.6 rebounds, 10.2 assists and 2.6 steals in his first Finals appearance. At this pace, Butler would join Michael Jordan as the only two players in NBA history to average at least 27 points on 55 percent shooting or better, seven rebounds, 10 assists and two steals in the Finals.
“That’s Jimmy Butler,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said. “That’s our max player, that’s who we go to in these moments and he has been producing. So we just got to keep contributing the best way we can and just let him take over the show.”
Butler has saved the best basketball of his career for the perfect time. The Heat is playing in the Finals with a less-than-100-percent Adebayo (neck strain) and a sidelined Goran Dragic (torn plantar fascia in left foot), who was the Heat’s leading scorer this postseason entering the championship series.
The Lakers made the adjustment to use Anthony Davis (6foot-10) as Butler’s primary defender and have defenders continuously dip under on screens to dare Butler to take outside shots. It worked in Game 4, as Butler shot 1 of 5 in the 27 possessions that Davis guarded him, and Butler finished 2 of 6 on non-paint shots.
But the Heat then adjusted to that Lakers’ adjustment, with Butler using more off-ball actions (like playing as the roll man) to get his touches Friday. After only one of his eight made shots was assisted in Game 4, four of his 11 made shots came on assists in Game 5.
Butler was also more willing to take the outside shots Los Angeles was conceding Friday. He finished 6 of 10 on non-paint shots — 5 of 7 on midrange looks and 1 of 3 on threes.
The result? Butler scored 15 points on efficient 6-of-10 shooting in the 32 possessions that Davis was his primary defender in Game 5.
Butler also drew a playoff-high 12 fouls to shoot 12 free throws Friday.