Jimmy Butler returns as Miami Heat top Brooklyn Nets

NEW YORK — After Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler scored 31 points on 12 shots and played 40 minutes in a 96-95 overtime victory hat Barclays Center over the Brooklyn Nets, after missing 11 of the previous 12 games with injuries, Butler said he felt no ill-effects from his toe injury.

“I’m straight,” said Butler, who despite missing his team’s last seven games, hit two free throws with 11 seconds remaining in overtime to secure the win for Miami (24-16), the Heat’s ninth victory in its last 13 games. He finished with 31 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals in 40 minutes. “I got my rhythm as I was coming back. Guys were looking for me, got out in open court.

“But more than anything, man, I’m just glad we won. That’s all that matters.”

It didn’t look like the Heat would be doing that for long stretches of the night — and, particularly, after a first half that saw Miami miss all 12 of its 3-pointers and go a dismal 4-for-22 from the field in the second quarter as they trailed Brooklyn 45-31 at the halftime break.

It was bad enough that Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, who likes to refer to his team playing “in the mud” when it’s struggling with its offense and its pace, said with a smile afterward that, “This was cement.”

But the Heat eventually turned things around in the third quarter, outscoring Brooklyn 37-24 to all but erase that halftime deficit before the game eventually went to an extra session when Butler missed a potential game-winning jumper at the buzzer.

“We had to get out of the mud,” said Adebayo, who had 11 points, 20 rebounds and 4 assists in 44 minutes. “We came in at halftime, and said we had to get out of the mud. We were just playing slow basketball, and we really sped up in the second half. And as you could see, we turned the game around.”

When given another chance to put the game away at the end of overtime, however, Butler took full advantage, hitting both free throws after Jacque Vaughn declined to challenge Dennis Smith Jr.’s foul on Butler’s drive to the hoop.

Vaughn then chose not to call a timeout ahead of the final possession of the game, which resulted in Mikal Bridges taking a contested fallaway jumper on the baseline that missed, allowing Miami to escape with a win.

“Yeah, I got a chance to look at it real quickly during the game and just felt they weren’t going to overturn that,” Vaughn said afterward as an explanation for his decision-making late, as Brooklyn lost its eighth game out of nine since the Nets controversially sat out several players, and pulled three more from the game after the first quarter, in a loss to the Milwaukee Bucks last month. “We felt Dennis had his left arm wrapped around the backside of the driver, and I didn’t think using the timeout they were going to overturn that call. So I looked at it.”

“(With) 11 seconds on the clock, we have shooters on the floor, (and it was) a great opportunity for them not to sub. They kept Herro in the game. We tried to attack him and turn the corner. Really good defense by Jimmy Butler. We got a shooter spotted up in the left corner, Royce is peeling at the top and Cam Thomas is over in the right corner. I don’t think I’m going to be able to draw anything up better than that.”

For Miami, it was only the ninth time all season its top three players — Butler, Adebayo and Tyler Herro — all played in the same game, and the seventh time all season all three of them played from start to finish.

Despite that, the Heat find themselves tied for fourth place in the Eastern Conference, sitting percentage points behind the Cleveland Cavaliers, and believe that they can now finally get some consistency now that they have all of their options at their disposal for — at least they hope — will be an extended period of time.

“We’re all right,” Butler said. “We just have to keep playing basketball the right way with or without myself, Tyler, and Bam in the lineup. We’ve always found a way to win games. We will continue to do so. But I like the idea of us three being on the court at the same time.”