After the Boston Celtics won the fifth game of the Eastern Conference Finals, we had an editorial meeting here at CBS Sports, during which we began outlining content ideas about the Miami Heat’s final elimination. I didn’t understand that. We just saw the Celtics come back from a 3-2 disadvantage to beat the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round. Why were we writing the Heat off?
We were not alone. Draymond Green said the Warriors will play the Celtics. Hardly anyone cares as much about the Heat as they deserve, but maybe that will change after what we saw on Friday night, when Jimmy Butler and company delivered one of the most daring victories you’ll ever see, 111-103, for avoid elimination and force the match 7 sunday in miami.
If you have other plans for Sunday night, cancel them.
This game will be a basketball war.
And if I’m in a basketball war, at this particular time, there aren’t many players, if any, who would rather have me by their side than Butler, whose heroism defied description on Friday. Everyone said he was hurt. He said he couldn’t get to the basket the same way. I didn’t buy it either. I’m not saying his knee didn’t bother him, but he wasn’t aggressive enough in Games 4 and 5, on which he scored a total of 19 points.
That wasn’t a problem with the season in play. Butler placed 47 points, the highest of his career in the playoffs, against the Celtics in the sixth game. He throws his four steals and Butler joins Michael Jordan (1988) as the only two players in history to record two 40-point games and four steals. in the same playoff series (Butler was 41 and four in the first game of Miami).
Butler is also the only player in Heat’s history to have posted several 45-point playoff games (he had 45 in the second game against the Hawks. While we’re talking about Heat’s history, Butler’s 47 also make up Miami’s highest postseason score, one better than Dwyane Wade’s 46 and two timid LeBron James’ 49s.
This also looks like good company.
The Heat made it a priority to play through Butler, who got the confrontations he wanted and attacked. He made his leap to stop, pivot, and fade into the paint. He ended up through contact, hitting his mid-rangers pull-ups. He also charged four of his eight triples. Dare to shoot. Boston gave him space and he didn’t hesitate.
The Heat were forced to warm up from the 3rd, where they entered the game shooting a collective 29 percent for the series. Butler’s attention definitely opened things up and the Heat spun the ball well, but they also had some sentences answered. There’s nothing you can do about it:
Or this:
Max Strus made three triples, and they all felt huge. Kyle Lowry, who seemed about to retire in the fifth game, was excellent (if you can stand his performance, which I personally can’t), he finished with 18 points (4 of 9 of 3) and 10 assists in 36 minutes of emptying the tank he would never have guessed he had in it. He hit a 28-footer with the wrong foot forward.
To put these contributions in perspective, Lowry and Strus combined to shoot 1 of 28 during Games 4 and 5, including 1 of 19 of 3. These are not spelling mistakes. Answering the bell, thus, with the season in play, is what the Heat is all about.
Butler is the best player, of course, and that’s not just for the Heat. When he’s being aggressive in scoring, he’s the best player left in the playoffs. I really think so. And Miami, especially without Tyler Herro, needs Butler to be aggressive to score. Otherwise, they are not offended enough. He probably should have been a Butler believer before this postseason according to what he did in the bubble, but he wasn’t. I knew it was very good. I hesitated to give him the big label. I’m an idiot.
But that being said, Miami is a team. Some teams have one or two players in charge of playing hard, doing the little things, but in Miami, everyone does these things, and in fact, is led by their best player. If you want to vomit every time you hear the phrase Culture of Heat, you’re not alone, but it didn’t come out of nowhere. This team, this franchise, is all courage. There was no way the Heat were in Game 6. And now they get Game 7 at home. That’s why they’ve focused on closing the season and securing the No. 1 seed, as I said, cancel your plans for Sunday. This could be downright bloody.