Jimmy Butler Erupts for 45 points to Lead Heat to 2-0 lead Against Hawks
Nobody summed up Tuesday night’s Heat win better than TNT analyst Charles Barkley during the postgame show. “Jimmy Freakin’ Butler!” said the hall-of-famer Barkley, before adding that he’d be using a different word if he weren’t on live television. It appears the rest of us have had the same reaction. In an admittedly sloppy game that could have gone either way at halftime, Jimmy Butler put the Miami Heat on his back and carried them to a Game Two dub to put them up 2-0 in the series. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after the game, “[Butler] is a killer. He’s going to seize the moment” (ESPN). That’s exactly what Miami’s star did. He torched the Hawks for a blistering 45 points on 15 for 25 shooting that included four triples.
Butler bullied Hawks defenders all night, getting to the rim at will and finishing through contact. In the second half, Butler made it look like everyone else was in slow-motion as he buzzed around the defensive end and led high-octane fastbreaks that ended in powerful slams. His epic scoring performance will likely overshadow an equally impressive stat though. Butler, notorious for fast and physical play, was able to hustle his team to a win without committing a single foul or turnover.
Compare that to Hawks star guard Trae Young’s ten turnovers in the game, and it's easy to see why Atlanta could never make that final push in their comeback efforts.
Despite the landslide on the stat sheet in Butler’s favor, he wasn’t able to pull off the ten point triumph on his own. Heat point guard Kyle Lowry conducted the Miami offensive orchestra like a seasoned maestro while young gunslingers, Tyler Herro and Max Strus, added a few clutch buckets of their own. Backup center Dewayne Dedmon was a rock in the middle, vacuuming up nine rebounds and plugging the hole left by Bam Adebayo’s foul troubles.
The Hawks weren’t as helpless against the East’s top seed as they were on Sunday, keeping it close for 4 quarters and even holding a brief lead in the third. The Hawks were led by Serbian sharpshooter, Bogdan Bogdanovic, who poured in 29 points on 12 for 18 shooting. Bogdanovic was aided by Young who kicked in 25 points of his own. Their three-point barrage was not enough though as the Heat began to pull away early in the fourth quarter, going up by as much as 16 before finishing the game with a 115-105 victory.
Aside from Jimmy Butler’s mesmerizing offensive onslaught, what stood out most about this game was Miami’s toughness. For the better part of three quarters, the Heat battled foul trouble, easy missed shots, and some hot shooting by Atlanta. But somehow, whenever it looked like Atlanta might have the Heat on the ropes, Miami was able to claw its way back into the lead through tenacious defense and high basketball IQ plays. It felt like Atlanta, behind Bogdanovic’s lights out shooting run, were clicking and had the juice to win the game, but Butler and company outmuscled them at every opportunity. The Heat also took advantage of their 29 free throw opportunities, converting 25 of them, a significant margin greater than Atlanta’s 11 for 14.
When the Heat travel to Atlanta for Game Three on Friday, Jimmy Butler will undoubtedly be locked in. Butler says, “I’m a different player now than I was [in the 2020 Finals]” (ESPN), adding that he just wants to play the right way and win. He credits the leadership and unselfish play of Kyle Lowry at the point guard spot for freeing up his own game and allowing him to be the Jimmy Butler we all saw last night.
The Miami Heat will need every ounce of effort from their crew as they take on a Hawks team at home, where they’ve won 20 of their last 23 games. Expect Young and this scrappy Hawks squad to be fired up in front of their home crowd for Friday’s make-or-break matchup. Game Three will be an invaluable opportunity for the Heat to take a 3-0 lead, which has never been surmounted in NBA postseason history. Friday’s game tips off at 7 p.m. EST in Atlanta’s State Farm Arena when Jimmy Butler will try to lead the Heat to 3-0 start over the Hawks.
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