Here’s the thing about history: It’s hard to see coming. Monday night’s drama began, undramatically enough, with Jimmy Butler making a pedestrian 20-foot shot with just over five minutes left in a troubled game.
“Frustrating,’ Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra called Game 4 against Milwaukee to that point. “Things weren’t going our way.”
No one considered Butler’s shot was the start of anything, much less the start of something unbelievable that would put the Heat up 3-1 this series.
How could they? That shot merely brought the Miami merely brought within what seemed like a constant eight-point cushion for Milwaukee. It really just set up the next shot, which was a Butler drive and five-foot runner.
Which was followed by his two free throws and we were getting somewhere.
Then came a breakaway dunk to put the Heat in the lead, and the hinges started coming off the night as Milwaukee threw a timeout to try to stop him and Butler kept shouting during the time-out, “This is my city!”
You remember Dwyane Wade jumping on a courtside table shouting, “This is my house!” It was like that. Only in the playoffs.
“That was the moment for me, that dunk,’ Heat center Bam Adebayo said later, looking back at the Heat’s 119-114 win.
Butler wasn’t done. From there: A 3-point shot, a long two-pointer (originally ruled a 3-pointer), two free throws, two more free throws as Milwaukee was fouling and yet another foul shot in the final seconds.
It came to 21 points by Butler in the fourth quarter. He had 22 points in the first quarter. And his 56 points in the game? Here’s the short list of all-time NBA scorers in a playoff game:
Michael Jordan, 63 points.
Elgin Baylor, 61 points.
Donovan Mitchell 57 points.
Butler, 56 points.
“Just trying to win, honestly,’ he said.
All night long again this series – for too much of Butler’s four Heat years, really – the question was if someone on the Heat could rise up and ride shotgun to Butler. Just help him out on a regular basis.
He didn’t need help this night. He took most of the big shots.
“Some of my bad shots went in,’ he said.
The Heat had no Tyler Herro, no Victor Oladipo and no Adebayo this night, it seemed. Herro and Oladipo were gone with season-ending injuries.
Adebayo wasn’t hurt. He just wasn’t helping much. He spent more time on the bench than the court in the first half, though the results were similar. He was asked if he took it up on himself to do more in an improved second half.
“I had to,’ he said.
There’s a point where the weight gets too much for one player. We’re close to that with this Heat team.“The Big Three,” was the fabled Heat era of Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh.
This is, “The Big One.” It’s Butler. Him. Almost alone.
“I don’t want to say too much, I’m still the head coach and there’s work to be done,’ Spoelstra said. “There’s a brilliance about how he competes at the game of basketball. That sums it up best.”
Spoelstra was asked where this ranks among great Heat performances.
“I’m not ready to rank anything yet,’ he said. “We still have work to do.”
The greatest singular performance in Heat history for the stakes and venue was LeBron’s 45 points and 15 rebounds in a gotta-have-it Game 6 in Boston. Lose that game, the Heat are eliminated and The Big Three Era gets mocked off the stage for a second straight spring.
You can argue the second biggest performance is Butler’s Monday night or his exhausting 47 points to force Game 6 of the 2020 NBA Finals next. Take your pick. The larger point is Butler’s body of work is becoming staggering.
On Monday, he guarded Milwaukee star Giannis Antetokuonmpo on defense for good stretches, too. He also was covered mostly by Milwaukee’s strong defender, Jrue Holiday. He fouled out Holiday.
“He’s a helluva defender, I’m not going to lie,’’ Butler said. “It’s just hard to defend when someone’s making whatever they put up.”
The question becomes: Can he do that again? Because the way this Heat team is, the manner Milwaukee can still turn it on, this series still might come to that.
History is nice, you see. But Game 5 is coming in Milwaukee Wednesday and there’s a series still to win.
()