After two triple-doubles, Heat’s Jimmy Butler named Eastern Conference Player of Week
Jimmy Butler’s week went well.
How well? The Heat wing was named the NBA Eastern Conference Player of the Week on Monday for games played from Dec. 2 through Dec. 8, with Lakers forward Anthony Davis earning the Western Conference Player of the Week award.
Butler, 30, is the first Heat player to be named Player of the Week since guard Goran Dragic earned the honor in January of 2018. Butler is the 15th different player to receive the award as a member of the Heat in franchise history.
It also marked the fifth time Butler has earned the Player of the Week award in his NBA career after earning it three times during the 2016-17 season and once during the 2014-15 season.
Butler averaged 27.5 points while shooting 48.4 percent from the field and 41.7 percent on threes, nine rebounds, 8.5 assists and 1.3 steals in four games over the past week. Miami posted a 3-1 record during this stretch, which began with a dramatic overtime road win over the Raptors on Tuesday and ended with Sunday’s overtime home win over the Bulls.
At the top of the list of Butler highlights from the previous week are two triple-double performances — a stat line of 22 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists in Tuesday’s win in Toronto and a stat line of 28 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists in Friday’s home win over the Wizards. He also scored a season-high 37 points in Wednesday’s road loss to the Celtics.
Butler, a four-time All-Star who signed a four-year, $142 million maximum contract with the Heat this past summer, is averaging a team-high in points (20.6), assists (6.8) and steals (2.2) this season. He has also posted a team-best plus/minus of plus-147.
“Helped us win,” coach Erik Spoelstra said last month when asked how Butler has helped the Heat (17-6). “We’ve been looking for a guy like this for a while. He’s a competitive two-way player and he just knows how to win. He knows how to impact winning. He’s a throwback player, almost, just in terms of not caring what his individual statistics are. He’ll impose his will when he needs to.
“He’s distributing the ball, he’s playing effectively as a point guard for us in a role that I’ve had Dwyane [Wade] and LeBron [James] in before. He has gobbled all that up and really helped our young guys gain a lot of confidence in the meantime.”
The other finalists for the Eastern Conference Player of the Week award that went to Butler: Brooklyn’s Spencer Dinwiddie, Detroit’s Andre Drummond, Orlando’s Evan Fournier, Indiana’s Domantas Sabonis, Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons and Atlanta’s Trae Young.
This isn’t the first time a Heat player has received league-wide recognition this season, with guard Kendrick Nunn named the Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month last week for games played in October and November.
This story was originally published December 9, 2019 at 3:08 PM.
