As Heat looks for late-game solutions, Jimmy Butler is at center of one that will be useful
Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler has not only established himself as one of the NBA’s best players. He’s also become one of the league’s most reliable offensive options in isolation situations.
Butler entered Saturday’s home game against the San Antonio Spurs ranked fifth in the NBA in points per isolation possession (1.18 points per possession) among the 42 players around the league averaging at least two such possessions per game. Only Brooklyn’s Kyrie Irving, New Orleans’ Zion Williamson, Philadelphia’s James Harden and Chicago’s DeMar DeRozan are ahead of Butler on this list.
So against the Los Angeles Clippers’ switching defense, the Heat’s late-game offensive package in Thursday’s 115-110 home win naturally consisted of a lot of Butler isolations. With the Clippers giving up the switch in an effort to close driving lanes, Butler hunted for mismatches by calling for screens and going to work whenever he got the matchup he was looking for.
“It’s pretty much league-wide,” coach Erik Spoelstra said when asked about Butler taking advantage of mismatches in isolation situations late in Thursday’s win over the Clippers. “You’re not going to be running flex in the last six minutes or motion offense from the old Indiana Hoosiers. You’re going to get the ball to your best players’ hands. But you have to be purposeful in this league because there’s a lot of different schemes you can do to burn clock defensively. You don’t want to be caught in the last five seconds with a home run play. So your purpose has to be great, everybody has to be on the same page.”
The strategy was effective on Thursday, as Butler got the one-on-one matchups he wanted and took advantage.
The 6-7 and 230-pound Butler hit three field goals in the final three minutes of the victory, with two of them coming on isolations against 6-2 and 208-pound guard Reggie Jackson and the third coming off an isolation against 6-5 and 206-pound guard Luke Kennard.
Butler’s first fourth-quarter basket came when Jackson picked him up in transition, and Butler immediately called for the four other Heat players in the game to clear that side of the court. Butler went on to post-up Jackson, using his size advantage to dribble into a one-handed fadeway over him to put the Heat ahead by six points with 2:43 to play.
Butler’s final two fourth-quarter baskets came off similar actions, as he called for Heat forward Max Strus to set a screen for him to draw the switch and get matchup he wanted. Strus’ screens resulted in a Butler fadeway jumper over Kennard to extend the Heat’s lead to eight points with 2:05 to play and then a one-legged fadeaway jumper over Jackson to push the Heat’s lead to five with 57.1 seconds remaining.
After adding two free throws with 15.7 seconds to play to seal the win, Butler closed by scoring the Heat’s final eight points of the night.
“When we get that five-point lead with like two or three minutes left, the ball finds the right place and [Thursday] it was Jimmy,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said. “Jimmy had the hot hand, he scored the last eight and that’s what he does. So at the end of the game, if he wants to keep doing that, I’m fine with that. I have no problem with him shooting step-back one-foot jumpers.”
This represents just one aspect of the Heat’s late-game package, but it’s one that it will rely on often as it works to improve its fourth-quarter offense.
The Heat entered Saturday with the NBA’s seventh-worst fourth-quarter offensive rating this season. It’s just the continuation of a concerning trend, as Miami ended last regular season with the 10th-worst fourth-quarter offensive rating, the 2020-21 regular season with the fifth-worst fourth-quarter offensive rating, the 2019-20 regular season with the third-worst fourth-quarter offensive rating, and the 2018-19 regular season with the second-worst fourth-quarter offensive rating.
“I think going after the mismatch, teams do the same thing to us,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said of the team’s late-game offense on Thursday. “That’s what teams do in the league. I think in the last three or four minutes, you give your best player the ball and you get a mismatch. Yeah, we get the ball to Jimmy and get the mismatch and he can make a play for himself or for others.”
STAYING CONFIDENT, AGGRESSIVE
Heat forward Caleb Martin has been the Heat’s most efficient three-point shooter this season.
After shooting 41.3 percent on 2.6 three-point attempts last season, Martin entered Saturday shooting a team-best 41.5 percent on a career-high 3.8 three-point attempts this season.
“I just think not hesitating,” Martin said of the key to his success from three-point range this season. “Just knowing that the more opportunities I get to shoot it, more often than not I’m going to make it. That’s just how I feel mentally. So just making sure I stay with that same approach, no matter if I’m making or missing.”
INJURY REPORT
The Heat was only without Jamal Cain (G League), Nikola Jovic (G League), Gabe Vincent (left knee effusion) and Omer Yurtseven (left ankle surgery) for Saturday’s game against the Spurs.
This story was originally published December 10, 2022 at 10:53 AM.
