The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Butler scores 32 against old team, leads Heat to East finals
Jimmy Butler knocked Joel Embiid out of the playoffs, then walked over to his former 76ers teammate for a hug and a message.
“‘I’m proud of him. I love him,’” Butler said he told Embiid. “Yes, yes, yes, I still wish I was on his team. I do love the Miami Heat though. I’m glad that I’m here.”
With another trip to the conference finals ahead, the Heat are happy to have him.
Butler scored 32 points and waved “bye bye” to the Philly crowd as he sent Miami into the Eastern Conference finals with a 99-90 victory over Philadelphia on Thursday night in Game 6.
The Heat will play the winner of the Milwaukee-boston series. The defending champion Bucks lead that series 3-2, with Game 6 on Friday night in Milwaukee.
The Heat reached the conference finals for the second time in three seasons, again with Butler leading the charge. Philly fans — and many inside the 76ers — still can’t believe the franchise let Butler get away after the 2019 season. He did not mess around and scored 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting in the third quarter when the Heat used a 16-2 run to take control. Butler scored 33 points in Game 3 and 40 in Game 4.
“I think he’s one of the ultimate competitors in this profession,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “He was brilliant all series long. The challenges only get tougher here. He saw there was an opportunity to end this tonight and he wasn’t going to let this get to seven.”
Embiid, the NBA scoring champion, scored 20 points on 7-of-24 shooting.
Coming off a 35-point victory in Game 5, the Heat wore down a battered Sixers team. Embiid looked gassed as he gamely tried to carry the Sixers. He had little lift and had a pull-up jumper blocked by Bam Adebayo in the third.
Philadelphia’s James Harden scored all of his 11 points in the first half. He had four turnovers and four baskets. Harden, who has a $47.4 million player option for 2022-23, missed both shots in the second half and scored his last basket at the 3:31 mark of the second quarter.
(at) Mavericks 113, Suns 86: Luka Doncic scored 33 points and the Mavericks beat the Suns to force a Game 7 in the Western Conference semifinals.
The home team has won all six games, none with a final margin closer than seven points. The deciding game is Sunday in Phoenix.
The Suns’ Devin Booker scored 19 points but was shut out from 3-point range (0 of 4) while going 6 of 17. Deandre Ayton had 21 points and 11 rebounds, and Chris Paul added 13 points.
The top-seeded Suns were held to a season low in scoring, regular season or playoffs, for the second time in the series.
Reggie Bullock scored 19 points and Jalen Brunson added 18 for Dallas. Spencer Dinwiddie had a series-high 15, all on 3s (5 of 7).
Doncic played through an apparent left leg injury that sent him to the locker room when he would have been out of the game anyway in the second quarter.