Whether Heat admits it or not, win in Butler’s return felt different. ‘They wanted this badly’
The Miami Heat downplayed the emotions surrounding Jimmy Butler’s return ahead of Tuesday’s game.
“We’re trying to focus on everything we’ve been dealing with for the last three weeks,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said just a few hours before tipoff. “I think all the emotions were late December and early January, to be frank. They’re trying to do what they’re trying to do. This is the NBA, so there’s a lot of things that will happen. There’s a lot of change in the NBA. I think we’re pretty far removed now from that kind of emotion.”
Even after blowing out Butler and the Warriors 112-86 at Kaseya Center on Tuesday night, Spoelstra and Heat players continued to dismiss any extra motivation generated from Butler’s return to Miami following last month’s trade to Golden State.
“We didn’t do any kind of extra motivational speech leading up into this,” Spoelstra said. “It was more about us just staying the course with our process.”
“It was a normal game, it felt like,” Heat guard Tyler Herro added.
“At this point, we’re just scrapping for wins. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing against,” Heat captain and center Bam Adebayo emphasized.
But it was clear to Warriors coach Steve Kerr that the Heat was energized by the opportunity to face Butler following his contentious exit from Miami.
“I think the world of Spo,” Kerr said. “He’s one of the great coaches in any sport. A game like this, you know he’s going to have them ready. He always does, but they wanted this badly. They took it to us.”
The Heat, which won its second straight game after snapping a 10-game losing streak with a win over the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday, never trailed Tuesday.
With Warriors guard Stephen Curry missing his second straight game because of a left pelvic contusion, the Heat’s defense suffocated a Golden State offense missing its top scorer. The Warriors totaled its second-lowest single-game point total of the season — 86 points on 39.8 percent shooting from the field and 9-of-38 (23.7 percent) shooting from three-point range — on Tuesday.
The Heat was also sharp on the offensive end, shooting 55.8 percent from the field and 17 of 25 (68 percent) on threes in the win over the Warriors. Not only did it mark the Heat’s best single-game three-point shooting percentage in franchise history when taking at least 25 threes, it was also just the eighth time in NBA history (including the playoffs) that a team has shot 68 percent or better from deep when putting up at least 25 three-point attempts in a game.
“You don’t want to become too emotional. I did not feel like we were too hyped up at all, at all,” Spoelstra said. “It was more laser focused on the competition and competing at a high level and playing well. That’s the fine line you always need to try to find in team sports. You got to toe the line of intense competition. You don’t want to be totally out of control and you definitely don’t want to be flat lined, where you’re not passionate. I thought we really had a really good inspiring energy and balance tonight.”
Adebayo spearheaded the Heat’s effort on both ends, finishing with a team-high 27 points and spending a chunk of the game as Butler’s primary defender.
With Adebayo guarding Butler for most of the night and the Heat often sending extra defenders at Butler when he found a mismatch in the post, Butler was limited to just 11 points on 5-of-12 shooting from the field, 0-of-2 shooting on threes and 1-of-1 shooting from the foul line, six rebounds, two assists and one steal in 29 minutes. He scored only two points on 1-of-6 shooting from the field in the first half.
“They made some shots, they played some incredible basketball,” Butler said of the Heat. “You tip your hat to that.”
Despite Butler’s ugly breakup with the Heat, he received a 35-second tribute video at Kaseya Center that included some of his most memorable moments in a Heat uniform before being introduced as a Warriors starter prior to tipoff Tuesday. With Butler waving at the South Florida crowd to acknowledge the honor, he was met with a split reaction of boos and cheers.
The boos continued into the game, as boos rained down nearly every time Butler touched the ball.
“That don’t bother me,” Butler said of the boos he received from Heat fans. “It’s going to happen plenty of places. I guess it’s going to happen here now, too. I’ll get used to it.”
The boos weren’t too surprising, considering a trade request and three team-issued suspensions without pay preceded Butler’s Heat departure.
The Heat traded the disgruntled Butler to the Warriors in early February. Miami acquired Andrew Wiggins, Kyle Anderson and a top-10 protected 2025 first-round pick from Golden State, and Davion Mitchell from the Toronto Raptors in the deal.
According to multiple sources, Butler’s relationship with the team took a turn last offseason when Heat president Pat Riley publicly challenged Butler to be available for more games and the Heat declined to give Butler a two-year, $113 million contract extension.
Butler told Taylor Rooks of Turner Sports before his return to Miami: “I have nothing to say to Pat. And Pat better have nothing to say to me.”
Did Tuesday represent closure for Butler?
“It was behind me a long time ago,” Butler said. “As soon as I ended up a Golden State Warrior, everything that went on was dead. Like I always say, I’m focused on the right now and what’s to come.”
But it’s obvious that Butler and the Heat still aren’t on the best terms, as Butler walked back to the Warriors locker room at the end of Tuesday’s game without exchanging any handshakes or words with his former Heat teammates and coaches.
When asked if he spoke with Butler before or after Tuesday’s contest, Herro just said: “No, no, no.”
Other than some conversations with Kevin Love and Terry Rozier before the game, Butler admitted he hasn’t spoken to his former Heat teammates in a while.
“Man, I’m going out there to play basketball,” Butler said. “I haven’t talked to the guys, and it’s not a bad thing, in a long time.”
Even after Tuesday’s emotional win, though, the Heat is just 6-17 since the Butler trade was finalized on Feb. 6. Miami stands in 10th place in the Eastern Conference with a 31-41 record, battling for play-in tournament positioning with just 10 regular-season games left the play.
Meanwhile, the Warriors are an impressive 16-4 when Butler has been available since the deal.
But the Heat has now won two straight games, including Tuesday’s feel-good victory over Butler and the Warriors. And Tuesday’s victory did feel a little better and different than others it has earned along the way, whether the Heat admits it or not.
“There was a lot of outside emotion around this game,” Adebayo said, with the Heat set to close its five-game homestand Thursday against the Atlanta Hawks (7:30 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun). “I’m not going to say for us because, like I said before, we’re scrapping for wins. But there was a lot of outside emotion around it. And to go out there and have that type of performance, you give guys a vision, you give guys belief. You want guys to play to a higher level and they did tonight.”
