12/15/2023 0 Comments Download who's in the nba finalsOn the very next possession, with time on the shot clock to create a better look, Butler attempted to tie the game on a turnaround fading three from the top of the key. “I turned the ball over,” Butler said of the game’s final two minutes. He then fumbled a potential Game 6 away in Game 5′s final 30 seconds: First by driving into the paint, losing his footing, then throwing the ball directly to Denver’s Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, a sequence that turned a one-point game into a three-point deficit and cost Miami a valuable timeout. Not to mention he played on cruise control for the game’s first 45 minutes before stringing together 13 points in a two-and-a-half-minute stretch in crunch time.īutler’s short-lived, late-game theatrics may have impressed the untrained eye, but it was too little, too late for a player who had shot just 2-of-13 through the first three quarters. The Heat needed more from their leader, and he did not deliver: Of Butler’s 21 points, nearly half (nine) came at the foul line. In fact, Butler wasn’t even the third-best player of the series: Jokic became the first center to win Finals MVP since Shaquille O’Neale in 2002 Murray flirted with a triple-double all series long, and Bam Adebayo - not Butler - led the Heat in scoring and played far more impactful minutes on both ends of the floor for the entirety of Miami’s championship run. Getting outplayed by the opponent’s second-best player? Hardly special. Meanwhile, Murray joined Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson as the last three guards to post 100 points and 50 assists in an NBA Finals series while shooting at least 45% from the field. He averaged 21.6 points, 6.4 assists and 4.6 rebounds through all five NBA Finals games. That level continued to elude him in the NBA Finals against the Nuggets: The Heat star finished Game 5 with just 21 points on 5-of-18 shooting from the field. They needed him to elevate to the undeniable level of superstardom that has evaded him all of his career. The Heat needed Butler to be more than special. Special is how Butler bullied the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals, winning Game 7 at the TD Garden to punch Miami’s ticket to the big dance. Special is how Butler powered the Heat past the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round, courtesy of 37 points per game against the NBA’s top-ranked regular-season defense. And not just special, because special is what got the Heat to the NBA Finals in the first place.
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