And I think he’s had to do that his entire career.” “He’s constantly having to prove himself. “It comes from probably consistently being told no, or that there’s other guys that are better, or we’re going to recruit him instead of you,” says Brad Ball, who coached Butler in high school. He has spent his entire basketball life proving people wrong-and relished every opportunity to do so along the way. Given the stakes, Monday’s game will be the Heat’s toughest test yet.īut the whiplash of this series has ultimately given Butler another chance to do what he does best: defy expectations. Now the Heat will head back to Boston for Game 7, where they will make history one way or another: Either they’ll become the first NBA team ever to lose a series after leading 3-0, or they’ll become just the second 8-seed to make the NBA Finals, where the Denver Nuggets await. Though he sank three massive free throws to put Miami ahead in the waning seconds of Game 6, he shot just 5-for-21 from the field in that game and struggled to wrest back control, leading some observers to wonder whether he and the Heat have enough left in the tank to finish off the Celtics. But since a Game 3 blowout, Boston has flipped the script and, for the first time all playoffs, Butler has seemed mortal. Despite a talent gap, the Heat took a 3-0 lead on the Celtics, behind strong clutch performances from Butler and confident play from the rest of the Heat. The Eastern Conference finals against Boston initially followed a similar blueprint. Next, he battled a sprained ankle to lead the Heat past the Knicks, evoking memories of his performance in the 2020 bubble in Orlando, when a similar rampage led the fifth-seeded Heat all the way to the Finals.Ĭheck out our daily predictions hub for the 2022-23 championship, the no. In the first round, he averaged 38 points, six rebounds, five assists, and two steals as Miami beat the top-seeded Bucks in five games. In a win-or-go-home play-in matchup, Butler scored 31 points to topple the Bulls, his former team, and clinch the East’s eighth seed. In the last two months, Butler has willed Miami from the fringes of the Eastern Conference playoff picture to the brink of the NBA Finals, elevating his game to a ridiculous level and empowering an undermanned roster to exceed expectations. The loss was the latest twist in a roller-coaster postseason run for the Miami Heat. “I think, I believe, as we all do, like you’re going to get the same test until you pass it.” “That’s good basketball,” he said in his postgame press conference. When Jimmy Butler walked off the floor following Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals, moments after a last-second putback by Derrick White won the game for Boston, he exuded confidence in the face of shock.
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