Jimmy Butler delivers to lead Heat to 2-0 series lead. Takeaways from Butler’s big night
Five takeaways from the top-seeded Miami Heat’s 115-105 win over the eighth-seeded Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night at FTX Arena. The Heat leads the best-of-7 first-round series 2-0, with Game 3 set for Friday in Atlanta:
With a few of its best players struggling offensively, the Heat turned to Jimmy Butler to lead the way. Butler delivered.
Butler set a new playoff career-high with 45 points on 15-of-25 shooting from the field, 4-of-7 shooting on threes and 11-of-12 shooting from the foul line, five rebounds, five assists and two steals in 39 minutes. He did not commit a turnover and, as usual, stood out on the defensive end.
“That’s just elite two-way basketball that he exhibited tonight,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Butler. “He was doing it on both ends. He had his one through five where he was guarding everybody on the floor at some point like Bam [Adebayo] always does. Then he was just terrific offensively. I just thought he was really assertive, he was making quick decisions and we really needed that in the second half.”
Butler became the second player in NBA history with 45 or more points, zero turnovers and zero fouls in a playoff game, joining Dominique Wilkins, according to StatMuse. Butler joined Dwyane Wade and LeBron James as the only three players in Heat history who have totaled 40 or more points in at least three different playoff games.
Butler scored 40 points in two games during the Heat’s 2020 playoff run in the Walt Disney World bubble, which was his previous playoff career-high.
“Last night, I had a conversation with [P.J. Tucker] and he was telling me to go out there and score and make sure that we win,” Butler said late Tuesday night. “Coach [Chris Quinn] did the same thing when I was up there getting shots in our practice gym. I went out and did just that.”
As part of Butler’s 45-point performance in Game 2, he scored seven very important points down the stretch.
The Heat led by 16 with 8:50 left in the fourth quarter, but the Hawks managed to cut the deficit to just three with 3:15 remaining.
That’s when Butler went on a personal 7-0 run to end Atlanta’s late-game momentum and put Miami ahead by 10 points with 1:20 to play, sealing the win.
The 7-0 run included an uncontested dunk, a three-pointer from the wing and a layup.
Butler shot 8 of 9 at the rim, 2 of 5 on non-rim paint shots and 1 of 4 on midrange looks in Game 2.
But possibly the most impressive and surprising part of Butler’s performance was his 4-of-7 three-point shooting display. It’s the most threes he has made in a game this season.
Butler, who shot just 23.3 percent on threes this season, has taken and hit more outside shots in recent weeks. He made 10 of 24 (41.7 percent) three-point attempts over his final eight regular-season games and has shot 5 of 9 (55.6 percent) from beyond the arc in the first two playoff games.
All of it was needed in Game 2, with Heat starting point guard Kyle Lowry scoring just nine points on 2-of-8 shooting and foul trouble limiting Heat starting center Bam Adebayo to just nine points and four rebounds in 24 minutes.
“He won the game for us tonight,” Lowry said of Butler. “It’s a team game, but his effort on both ends was spectacular. 45 points in a playoff game and a Game 2 that we felt was a must-win for us. It’s big time basketball from a big time basketball player, one of the best two-way players in the game.”
The Hawks made adjustments to try to create more space for star guard Trae Young in Game 2, and he was better on Tuesday. But the Heat’s switching defense still very clearly bothered him.
After scoring a season-low eight points on 1-of-12 shooting in Game 1, Young finished with 25 points on 10-of-20 shooting from the field, 2-of-10 shooting on threes and 3-of-4 shooting from the foul line, six rebounds and seven assists in 41 minutes on Tuesday.
The Hawks worked to make it tougher for the Heat to load up on Young by getting him off the ball quicker and allowing him to work in more off-ball situations.
But the results weren’t great, as Young committed a career-high 10 turnovers to go with another inefficient three-point shooting night. The Hawks were outscored by 11 points with Young on the court in Game 2 and have been outscored by 33 points in Young’s minutes during the first two games of the series.
Young has shot just 2 of 17 (11.8 percent) on threes in the series. He only took four shots at the rim in the first two games of the playoffs, as the Heat’s switching defensive system designed to limit paint opportunities has been effective in cutting off his driving lanes.
The Heat again rotated through Butler, Lowry and Gabe Vincent as Young’s primary defenders in Game 2.
Young complained after the officiating after the game, as the Heat shot 15 more free throws than the Hawks on Tuesday.
“If the refs are going to let them be as physical as they are and not call fouls, it is going to be hard to do anything,” Young said.
In response, Vincent smiled and said: “I thought he got a lot of calls tonight.”
The Hawks made some other offensive adjustments after its Game 1 blowout loss, but the results didn’t change much.
With starting center Clint Capela still out because of a hyperextended right knee, the Hawks moved John Collins into his starting spot for Game 2 after starting Onyeka Okongwu in Capela’s place in Game 1. It marked Collins’ first start since March 11 after missing the final month of the regular season because of finger and foot injuries.
Collins finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds in 29 minutes, but clearly wasn’t 100 percent as he held his hand and limped down the court during various points of the game.
“This is a great offensive team you’re lining up against, particularly when they’re healthy and Collins adds a totally different mix because of his ability to score the ball,” Spoelstra said. “He’s a great speed roll guy, but he can also catch and finish in the paint, he has range.”
While Collins’ athleticism and scoring ability looked to help at times, the Hawks’ offense still struggled to score against the Heat’s defense.
Atlanta shot 47.1 percent from the field, but just 12 of 40 (30 percent) on threes, and committed 19 turnovers that Miami turned into 21 points. The offensive issues remained even with Hawks guard Bogdan Bogdanovic scoring 29 points on 12-of-18 shooting from the field and 5-of-10 shooting on threes off the bench.
The Hawks closed with a Game 2 offensive rating of 106.1 points scored per 100 possessions, which would have ranked fourth-worst among NBA teams in the regular season.
The Hawks actually recorded the NBA’s second-best offensive rating in the regular season with 115.4 points per 100 possessions. But Atlanta’s biggest strength has been among its biggest issues to begin the playoffs.
“They have weapons all over the place. They have shooting, they’re like us,” Spoelstra said. “They have three-point shooting everywhere on the roster, so your pick-up points are a lot further than they are against most opponents. But that’s why they have the No. 2 offense. They have our full respect.”
Game 2 was a weird one that included a lot of fouls and some unexpected developments.
Following Game 1 that included 41 fouls, 50 fouls were called in Game 2. The Heat was the beneficiary, outscoring the Hawks 25-11 at the foul line.
But all of the whistles had Adebayo in foul trouble for most of the night. Adebayo exited the game after he was called for his fourth foul with 10:38 left in the third quarter and did not re-enter the game until there was 8:33 left in the fourth quarter.
That forced Spoelstra to improvise, as he subbed in Caleb Martin for Adebayo. With Martin in the game, the Heat went small for most of the third quarter with a lineup that featured Tucker at center.
It worked, as the lineup of Lowry, Butler, Max Strus, Martin and Tucker posted a plus/minus of plus-nine in eight third-quarter minutes in Game 2. That group turned a five-point lead into a 14-point lead late in the period before the Hawks rallied in the fourth quarter.
“You don’t anticipate that that will happen, but I thought Caleb gave us some really good minutes,” Spoelstra said, referring to Adebayo’s foul trouble. “P.J. slid over to the five. That was the group that really got us to the double-digit lead. A crazy amount of energy and they were playing off a lot of those misses and blocks, defensive stops and just getting out on the open court.
“That’s why we always say all hands on deck, you have to be ready at a moment’s notice. There is no nine-man rotation. It’s a full 15-man rotation at any point during a game. You just have to be ready and we were able to pivot during somewhat of an unpredictable foul trouble situation with Bam, and we were able to turn that into a positive.”
Also, worth noting: Vincent played a big role off the Heat’s bench for the second straight game, finishing with 11 points on 3-of-5 shooting from deep and three assists while again pestering Young with his strong defense. Vincent logged 26 minutes and played the entire fourth quarter.
Duncan Robinson, who scored 27 points and shot 8-of-9 on threes in Game 1, played just 6:40 off the bench in Game 2. He did not score or attempt a shot on Tuesday.
If history is any indication, the Heat is on track to advance to the second round of the playoffs for just the second time in the last six seasons.
After winning the first two games of its series against the Hawks, the Heat is in a very good spot. The Heat owns a perfect 17-0 all-time record in playoff series that it has taken a 2-0 lead in.
There have only been 25 instances in NBA history of a team rallying from a 2-0 hole in a best-of-7 series.
“We took care of home, but they say the playoffs don’t start until you win one on the road,” Lowry said. “We understand they are going to play better at home.”
The series now shifts to Atlanta for the next two games.
This story was originally published April 20, 2022 at 12:23 AM.
