Jimmy Butler Keeps Doing Things That Haven’t Been Done
The Miami Heat are one game closer to realizing the first part of their 2022 NBA Season goals. After a stunning comeback victory in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, 118-107, over the Boston Celtics, the Miami Heat sit just three wins away from a bid to the 2022 NBA Finals.
Along the way, they have been able to dismiss the Atlanta Hawks in the first round, followed by Joel Embiid, James Harden, and the Philadelphia 76ers in the second round. They have been able to get some things done as a team, that’s for certain.
However, at the forefront of it all and as an individual player, their leader and best player in Jimmy Butler has also been able to get some things done. Averaging nearly 30 points, eight rebounds, five and a half assists, over two steals, and a block per game across 11 contests played in the 2022 playoffs thus far, the man has catapulted himself into rare air for the Miami Heat.
Being the only player, other than LeBron James, to average at least 28 points and seven rebounds per game in the playoffs for the Miami Heat, that’s already a feat in itself.
The Miami Heat need Jimmy Butler to be the best player on the court four times before the Celtics can win four games in the ECF. He seems to be capable.
When you find yourself in his company and the company of the only man that might be better than him, His Airness if you will, then you know you’re doing something right.
Here’s where the rabbit hole gets as deep as it has ever gotten though. When you can do something that no one else has ever done, not even King James or Black Jesus, then—you are talking about something totally different and that must be recognized.
Well, Jimmy Butler did it. Here was his stat line and the corresponding accomplishment in Tuesday night’s Game 1 victory in the Eastern Conference Finals.
What more needs to be said? Not a whole lot, if anything at all.
When a guy tells you that he doesn’t care about the way that the opposition plans to guard him, which he quite literally did right before this series started, you know that the man is on a mission. Jimmy Butler is certainly playing like it.
They still have a long way to go before realizing their chances to win their ultimate goal—an NBA title. But if he’s playing like this, they certainly have the chance to do just that.
