The Duncan Robinson game finally happened in the NBA Finals right when Heat needed it
On the night the Miami Heat lost Game 2 of the 2020 NBA Finals to the Los Angeles Lakers, Jimmy Butler summoned Duncan Robinson to his hotel room at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort for an urgent meeting.
Robinson had gone just 2 of 10 from three-point range in the first two games of the NBA Finals and the Heat was in a two-game hole, with no idea when Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic might return from their injuries. Butler needed more from the sharpshooting swingman.
“We just chopped it up and talked,” Robinson said Friday. “He’s hard on me, but it’s because he expects a lot and I welcome that. I love that. This whole team just wants me to be aggressive, do my job. I thought I didn’t do it well enough, really, in those first two and I’m disappointed in that, but, at this point, you control what you can control and that’s these games.”
Robinson didn’t divulge what Butler told him in the late-night meeting, but it’s easy to guess. The only instructions his teammates and coaches seemingly ever give him is a three-word order: “Shoot it, Dunc.”
They say it because they always know a game like Game 5 can happen. Robinson went 7 of 13 from deep, including one critical four-point play in the fourth quarter, to score a postseason career-high 26 points and help the Heat beat the Lakers, 111-108, and cut the series deficit to 3-2 in Lake Buena Vista.
With LeBron James going off for 40 points on the other end, Robinson’s breakout game arrived just when Miami most needed it.
“We always tell him shoot first and then pass later, so we’re just going to keep doing that,” Adebayo said Friday. “I feel like he’s waking up in this series.”
Added rookie wing Tyler Herro: “Every time he shoots it, we feel like it’s going in.”
Ever since his meeting with Butler, Robinson has been better. He went 3 for 10 from deep in the Heat’s Game 3 win Sunday and has been on fire since. He went 3 for 6 in the Game 5 loss Tuesday and finally exploded Friday with Miami’s season on the line.
His seven three-pointers put him in illustrious company. He’s only the 10th player in NBA history to knock down seven threes in a Finals game, joining Stephen Curry, Ray Allen, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, Hall of Fame small forward Scottie Pippen, former Houston Rockets point guard Kenny Smith and former Heat wing Mike Miller, plus, coincidentally, Los Angeles wings Danny Green and J.R. Smith. Curry and Allen are the only two to hit more than seven in a game, and Robinson is the only undrafted player on the list.
Led by Robinson, Miami went 14 of 33 from beyond the arc. The Heat is 28-7 this year when shooting at least 40 percent from three.
“They’re like sticks of dynamite,” coach Erik Spoelstra said Friday, referring to Robinson, and rookie guards Kendrick Nunn and Tyler Herro. “They can go off at any time.”
In the regular season, Robinson was arguably the best shooter in the NBA, finishing tied for third in threes while best everyone ahead of him in three-point percentage. Miami finished the regular season with the second best three-point percentage in the league.
In the 2020 NBA playoffs, Robinson’s percentage has dipped from 44.6 all the way to 39.9 and the Heat’s has dropped from 37.9 to 35.9. Robinson is getting fewer open looks than he did in the regular season and missing more of those wide-open chances.
His gravity alone always helps Miami, but when he’s running hard around screens and throwing shots at the hoop he changes the complexion of the offense, particularly with Dragic’s absence turning Butler into the only reliable creator. More than ever, the “best-conditioned” part of “Heat culture” is key to Miami’s success, as Robinson’s constant motion means he’s running about four miles per game on offense, he said, and constantly occupying the Lakers’ defense.
“We wear that with pride,” Robinson said. “We think it’s an advantage in every series that we play in.”
Has Butler’s message to Robinson really been so simple? Sort of.
“Shoot it, Dunc,” is only the end of the conversation. Robinson, Butler believes, needs to be selfish in just getting the ball in his hands.
“Stop running from the basketball. Can’t shoot the ball if you don’t have the ball,” Butler said Friday. “I think he gets lost in trying to get other people open, when everybody is going to react to him probably more so than they’re going to react to me. A three is worth more than a two, so as long as he’s coming to the ball — shooting the ball when he’s open, when he’s not open — that’s the Duncan Robinson that we need, that we want because that’s how he’s been playing all year long and we’re going to need him to be even more aggressive for Game 6.”
This story was originally published October 10, 2020 at 9:00 AM.
