That may have been one of the single greatest playoff performances I’ve ever seen. The Miami Heat were CARRIED to victory by Jimmy Butler as he posted an incredible 56 PTS to defeat the Milwaukee Bucks and give the 8th seeded Heat a 3-1 series lead.
WHAT A PERFORMANCE!
I don’t know what else to say. Jimmy Butler showed that his “Playoff Jimmy” nickname is not an exaggeration as he single-handedly beat the Milwaukee Bucks, who had Giannis back and fully ready to go, with a 56 PTS, 9 REB, 2 AST, 1 BLK, 68% FG shooting (19/28), 38% 3-point shooting (3/8), and 83% FT shooting (15/18) performance that saw the Heat win 119-114 and take a commanding 3-1 lead.
And, even though the Bucks have had a huge injury blow with Giannis Antetokounmpo missing Games 1, 2, and 3 (he only played 11 minutes in Game 1) for most of the series, this is not an undeserved lead.
Sure, “Jimmy Buckets” racked up 19 made FGs and 3 made 3-pointers in his sensational performance (and I’ll get to him in a minute), but the Heat supporting players have been lethal from the field and the 3-point line.
Led by Jimmy Butler (obviously), Gabe Vincent (10 PTS, 8 REB, 2 AST, 1 STL, 1 BLK), Caleb Martin (12 PTS, 9 REB, 1 AST, 2 STL), and Bam Adebayo (15 PTS, 8 REB, 2 AST, 1 STL, 1 BLK), the Heat shot 49.4% (43/87) from the field, 40.6% (13/32) from beyond the arc, and 80% (20/25) from the free throw line against the Bucks last night, while Vincent, Martin, Adebayo, and Butler all scored at least 10 points and 2 rebounds (with Butler, Adebayo, and Martin all having 7+ rebounds).
Now, that may not seem too impressive given how hot the Heat have been against the Bucks so far, but it’s actually incredible how elite they’ve been at shooting as they finished with the 5th worst FG shooting percentage efficiency (46.0%), the 4th worst 3-point shooting efficiency (34.4%), the 5th worst team at attempted FGs/game (85.3 FG attempted), and was the lowest scoring team in all of the NBA (109.5 PPG) throughout the regular season.
Simply put, the Heat shouldn’t even have laid a glove on the Bucks given their tepid regular season offense, their injuries (Tyler Herro, Victor Oladipo), and the Bucks high-powered regular season offense (the Bucks ranked in the Top-10 in 3/4 categories listed above). Yet here we are.
And, as I mentioned above, it’s all down to Jimmy Butler’s INSANE HEROICS.
Yeah, the Bucks played pretty poorly as they have only averaged 43.3% FG shooting (42/97), 32.5% 3-point shooting (13/40), they committed 14 turnovers, and the role players (ex: Jrue Holiday, Khris Middleton, Grayson Allen, Bobby Portis) just had a combined 41 PTS, but Jimmy Butler has been next level great.
He was literally hitting every shot he took as his mind-blowingly great shooting stats display, and he took over the game in the final 5 or so minutes.
With the Bucks up by 10 and on the verge of tying the series, Jimmy Buckets decided to give the Miami crowd a performance none would ever forget as he outscored the entire Bucks roster with 19 PTS and 2 AST in the final five minutes, erasing a 10-point Bucks lead and turning it into a 5-point Heat win.
Whether it was a free throw, a midrange shot, a layup, or a deep 3, Butler was hitting EVERYTHING from EVERYWHERE on the court, forcing the Bucks into either letting him score easy layups or fouling him to the point they fouled out (aka: Khris Middleton). There really aren’t enough superlatives in the English dictionary to express how incredible this performance really was.
So, I’ll just give a stat to prove Butler’s greatness: in the 76-year history of the NBA, there have only been three players (Michael Jordan’s 62-point performance vs. Celtics in 1986, Elgin Baylor’s 61-point performance vs. Celtics in 1962, and Donovan Mitchell’s 57-point performance vs. Nuggets in 2020) to have scored more points in a playoff game than Butler.
Yeah.
So, with the 8th seeded Heat now poised and set to knock off 1st seeded and best regular season team Milwaukee Bucks with a 3-1 lead, I don’t see how Miami and Jimmy Butler don’t win one of their next three games to pull off one of the most remarkable upsets in NBA postseason history. As long as Butler and the Heat continue to score at similar levels, the Bucks don’t stand a chance of winning three straight (key words here) games against them.
Milwaukee might be able to win one or two, but three is going to be extremely tough against a Playoff Jimmy-led Heat team.
Man, are we really going to see the NBA championship favorites get knocked off in the 1st round!
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