After missing in the final minute of a potentially decisive third-place Finals win against the Celtics in Game 7 of last year’s Eastern Conference Finals, Jimmy Butler didn’t give up. The shot was not seen on an episode over the summer. He didn’t waste his time wondering, “What if?” Instead, tell those close to him if he gets a similar opportunity next in the postseason, he’s not just going to shoot those three braves again, next time he’s going to make it.
On Monday, in the first truly tense and high-impact game since the Boston shot, Butler delivered a whopping and incomprehensible 56 points — including two jumpers late in the fourth game — heat Winning 119-114 and a difference of 3-1 on dollars, pushing the best regular season NBA team to the brink of elimination. And in the process, Butler has shown himself to be the best current player in his conference, and possibly the entire postseason field.
Jimmy Buckets was great on Monday. He scored 56 of just 28 shots. He went 15 of 18 from the free throw line and 3 of 8 from three. Otherwise, he bullied his way into the paint or found a feathery touch on mid-class Js and floats. The difficulty score was incredibly high, with Butler primarily matching Jrue’s bumpy holiday. Butler gave everyone buckets, though, from Holiday to Giannis Antetokounmpo to Brook Lopez and anyone else between him and Edge. Despite Holiday being stalked and flanked a length by Milwaukee, Butler shot 80%—again, to be sure, 80%—on his 20 two-point attempts.
He saved his best for the end, too. In the fourth quarter, Butler entered the game trailing 98-87. Over the last eight minutes, he outpaced Milwaukee By himself, 22-16, and contributed seven points during a 13-0 run at Miami that overturned a 101-89 deficit late in the fourth quarter. True to his word, he took and sank two massive jumpers to swing the game. The first was a surprise pull of three from the left winger to give Miami a 110-109 lead with 1:20 remaining. Then on the next possession, from the left wing but with his foot on the three-point line, Butler got up and hit a shot over Holliday to extend the lead to three points.
The Jimmy Butler Show 😱
(via @tweet)pic.twitter.com/vvq0puskM3
– Sports Illustrated (SInow) April 25, 2023
And Butler did all of this with very little offensive help from his teammates. The rest of the Miami players combined to score just 31 points. Butler shot 67.9% from the field in Game 4. The rest of the team shot 40.1%. He’s been performing “Put the Team on Your Back” the whole time.
Other great individuals have shown up this postseason, from Devin Booker to Nikola Jokic to Jason Tatum. None of them play an opponent as tough as Milwaukee. And with Tyler Hero out, none of them had a second-scoring option the way Butler does. That also doesn’t even begin to take into account what Jimmy has done defensively, remaining brave despite his massive offensive workload. For the series, Butler now averages 36.5 points on comical 62.8% shooting to go along with 5.5 rebounds and 5.0 assists. There are plenty of postseason games left, but no one is playing better than Jimmy right now.
Butler’s Game 4 efforts spoiled the return of Antetokounmpo, who was playing in his first game since his back injury in Game 1. Greek Freak was a standout, compiling a 26-10-13 triple-double in his return to action. And for most of the game, his presence seemed to overwhelm the Heat and their relative lack of size. If it weren’t for Butler, Monday night would have been all about Giannis’ outsized influence.
Instead, he encountered an unstoppable force in the fourth. There were legitimate questions about whether Miami’s offense would maintain its level of play with Giannis back on the ground. Overall, it’s clear The Heat has taken a step back. It just meant that Butler had more to offer, and he managed to outpace the league’s MVP.
Milwaukee is on the mend, but shutting down the Bucks won’t be easy. Two of the final three games of the series will be in Wisconsin. Outside of Butler, Miami looked lost on Monday. However, the Heat would go into the rest of the series thinking they had the MVP on Earth. Giannis is definitely capable of snatching that crown back, and he’ll be aiming for it in Game Five. And Butler did give Miami a great opportunity, though. And he’ll attack that opportunity the same way he did his massive fourth-quarter shots in Game 4: fearlessly.