Butler rips Warren: “He not even in my league.” And more fallout, takeaways from Heat win
Five takeaways from the Heat’s 122-108 win against the Pacers at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis:
▪ The always contentious Heat-Pacers series had another dose of chippiness, this time with TJ Warren and Jimmy Butler replacing Lance Stephenson, Udonis Haslem, Tyler Hansbrough and other past protagonists at the epicenter.
Wednesday’s theatrics began when Warren forcefully grabbed Butler’s arm on a drive to the basket midway through the third quarter. Butler took issue with that, and the two had to be separated.
As they were pulled away by teammates, Butler and Warren vociferously yelled and gesticulated toward each other for 15 seconds or so. According to video from ESPN, Butler told Warren: “You’re [expletive] trash.” Warren told Butler: “I’ll beat your [expletive butt].”
Both were assessed technical fouls, but Warren’s foul was called a common foul, not a flagrant.
On the ensuing Heat possession seven seconds later, Butler was called for an offensive foul against Warren, and Warren then clapped his hands in Butler’s face, earning Warren a second technical and an ejection.
Butler blew Warren a kiss goodbye and Warren left the court with an obscene gesture undoubtedly intended for Butler.
Butler remained in the game, but was booed loudly by Pacers fans every time he touched the ball the rest of the night.
Butler didn’t hold back in postgame comments.
“To me, I think it’s tough for him because I can guard him and he can’t guard me,” Butler said. “At the end of the day, that’s what it comes down to. You have just got to watch your mouth in certain situations. There’s some [expletive] you just don’t say as a man. He’s got to see me the next time because I feel like what he said was truly disrespectful.
“It’s all good because we see him again. I ain’t scared of nobody. He’s talking about, ‘We’re going to fight.’”
“He’s soft. He’s not even in my [expletive] league, nowhere near me. If I was their coach, I would never put him on me ever again. Put somebody else on me, because I’m going to tear his [butt] up every game.”
Will Butler remember this when the teams meet again March 20 in Indianapolis?
“He can’t do nothing with me,” Butler said. “When I say he’s trash, I mean that. He’s not in my league. I take it as disrespect if you ever put him on me. If he asked for that matchup it’s disrespectful.”
An hour after the game, Butler posted the Heat’s schedule on Instagram, with that game circled.
Warren was not in the Pacers’ locker-room to comment after the game.
Butler closed with 14 points, six rebounds and seven assists, taking only six shots and making five. Warren had three points on 1 for 5 shooting.
So add this to the long list of Heat-Pacers theatrics, which included Lance Stephenson making a choke sign toward LeBron James from the Pacers bench, blowing into James’ ear another time, and incidents involving Haslem and Hansbrough and former Heat center Chris Birdman Anderson and Hansbrough.
“It’s two competitive physical teams and there are competitors on both sides and sometimes it spills over,” Erik Spoelstra said. “These guys aren’t going to be meeting in the parking lot or anything like that.”
▪ Bam Adebayo again outplayed the guy kept ahead of him on the US men’s national team. And it isn’t a coincidence.
You can bet that Adebayo won’t soon forget not only being cut from the US National team before the World Cup tournament in August, but also the three centers kept ahead of him: the Pacers’ Myles Turner, Milwaukee’s Brook Lopez and Denver’s Mason Plumlee.
For the second time in two weeks, Adebayo got the better of Turner on Tuesday, finishing with 18 points and 9 rebounds in 27 minutes while shooting 9 for 12.
Turner closed with nine points and five rebounds, shooting 3 for 9.
Adebayo’s full offensive game was on display during a dynamic 14-point, 8-rebound first half. He showed great touch on his floater, drove past defenders for layups and missed only three of his nine attempts. Then he opened the second half with a crushing dunk.
There should be no doubt that Adebayo is clearly a better player than Turner, and Wednesday reinforced that.
When the Heat and Pacers met late last month, Adebayo had 18 points, 15 rebounds and six assists, shooting 8 for 10, while Turner was limited to 13 points, six rebounds.
Adebayo admitted after the game that he’s still fueled by his release by USA Basketball.
▪ Butler has a way of picking his spot on offense.
On Wednesday, teammates took 17 shots before Butler attempted his first, late in the first quarter. But then he hit three more in a row over a two minute stretch.
And yet Butler took only one shot in the second quarter and none in the first eight minutes of the third quarter. He finished with 14 points on 5 for 6 shooting.
“I don’t need [to be a volume shooter here], but if you put a weaker defender on me, I’m going to get around him with ease and then I’ll get my teammates involved,” Butler said.
Butler entered having made at least half his shots in only 10 games this season. His 42.9 shooting percentage is well off his 45.2 career average.
But on a night that his shots were falling, Butler remained selective.
Butler entered averaging 13.6 shots per game, tied with his output last season, which was spent mostly in Philadelphia alongside several other established scorers. That’s his fewest shot attempts per game since 2013-14, his third year in the league. His 5.8 makes per game are his fewest since the 2013-14 season.
But the important caveat is that he’s averaging eight made free throws per game, by far the most in his career.
▪ Justise WInslow returned, and there were small ripple effects on the rotation.
After missing 15 games in a row with lower back bone bruise, Winslow entered with two seconds remaining in the first half, following Derrick Jones Jr., Goran Dragic and Tyler Herro as the fourth Heat player off the bench.
Erik Spoelstra went no further until garbage time, bypassing Kelly Olynyk for a second game in a row and opting not to use either Chris Silva (until the final 2:21) or forward James Johnson, who had 12 points and 6 rebounds on Sunday against Portland, in his first game since Nov. 27.
Dion Waiters, who has yet to appear in a game this season, was inactive, along with forward KZ Okpala and new two-way guard Gabe Vincent, who are both with the Heat’s G-League team in South Dakota.
Winslow, sharing ball-handling duties on the Heat’s second unit, missed his first shot (a three-pointer) and played 16 scoreless minutes.
“It’s going to take time to get where I want to get back to,” Winslow said.
But there was plenty of offense to go around, from Adebayo, Butler, Duncan Robinson (17 points), Kendrick Nunn (15 points), Derrick Jones Jr. (18), Goran Dragic (15) and Tyler Herro (19).
▪ The Heat - at least for now - broke out of its road funk.
After dropping three of its past four on the road (bad losses at Memphis, Washington and Orlando), Miami righted itself against a team that entered 15-4 at home.
The Heat - which is 17-1 at home - moved back over .500 on the road (10-9). And this is important, too: Except for Boston, the Heat has won on the road against the other teams holding top seven spots in the Eastern Conference.
“It was about taking ownership of what we’ve done on the road,” Spoelstra said.
Miami, meanwhile, moved past Boston for second in the East, with the Celtics losing to San Antonio.
Miami caught the Pacers at a good time, three weeks before All Star Victor Olapido is due to return.
The Heat stretched its lead over the No. 6 Pacers to 4.5 games and that cushion is important, because Olapido announced Tuesday that he intends to return Jan. 29 after a quad tendon injury that has sidelined him a full calendar year.
Indiana on Wednesday also was missing starting point guard Malcolm Brogdon.
The Heat would clinch the tiebreaker over Indiana by winning either of their two remaining meetings - March 20 in Indianapolis and April 7 in Miami.
This story was originally published January 8, 2020 at 10:04 PM.
