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KISSIMMEE, Fla. — In hindsight, it should have been obvious that Jimmy Butler wouldn’t let the Miami Heat go out that quietly.
Butler has built his reputation on a relentless and confrontational spirit, and the Heat’s meek showing through the first two games of the NBA Finals was out of character both for the organization and its all-star forward. Game 2 saw Butler play 45 admirable minutes in a blowout loss; Game 3 saw him turn in the best playoff performance of his career.
To key a 115-104 victory that pulled the Heat back within 2-1 in its series with the Los Angeles Lakers, Butler finished with 40 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists. He carried the Heat’s late-game offense with 10 fourth-quarter points, tied his playoff career high for scoring and exchanged barbs with LeBron James. At the end of the first quarter, the Lakers forward told Butler that the Heat was “in trouble.” Butler didn’t shy from the exchange, and he repeated the same phrase back to his longtime playoff nemesis when it became clear Miami would prevail.
“I’m not just out there talking trash,” Butler said. “LeBron said [‘You’re in trouble’] to me at the end of the first [quarter]. That’s what happened. I just said it to him in the fourth quarter. … We stay focused on ourselves. That’s how we got here.”
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Indeed, this career night was many years and many loud exits in the making. For Butler, who is playing in his first career Finals at 31, two previous postseason series losses to James provide added motivation. All told, James is now 10-4 against Butler in the playoffs. Before Game 3, James had won their previous five games dating from a dramatic 2015 buzzer-beater that he drilled in Butler’s face.
As a member of the 2013 Bulls, Butler had been tasked by Tom Thibodeau, Chicago’s demanding coach, to shadow James throughout a second-round series against the Miami Heat. Butler, then a 23-year-old defensive specialist, played all 48 minutes three times in a 10-day period. It wasn’t enough; the Bulls fell to the eventual champions in five games. James went on to be the Finals MVP.
In 2015, Butler’s hopes swelled during a second-round series between the Bulls and James’s Cleveland Cavaliers. Chicago went up 2-1 on the injury-riddled Cavaliers thanks to a Derrick Rose buzzer-beater in Game 3, and was on the verge of taking a 3-1 lead in a nip-and-tuck Game 4. Instead, James buried his memorable buzzer-beater — after “scratching” Coach David Blatt’s play call, demanding the final shot and breaking free from Butler — to even the series. The Cavaliers went on to win in six games and reach the Finals. Butler, meanwhile, won just one playoff series over the next four years combined.
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“LeBron has got the best of me way too many times,” Butler said Sunday. “I respect the guy for it, but this is a different time now [and] a different group of guys that I have around me. We are here to win. We are here to compete. We’re not going to lay down. We’re going to fight back in this thing [and] even it up 2-2.”
The Heat desperately needed that edge from Butler on Sunday after losing Goran Dragic and Bam Adebayo to injuries in Game 1. It only felt right that Butler, who has not been shy about expressing himself since he blossomed into an all-star, delivered in loud fashion after his blunt talk kept requiring a change of scenery.
After the Bulls traded him in 2017 following ongoing differences with then-coach Fred Hoiberg, Butler showed up in Minnesota and gave out his cellphone number to critics, recording a voice mail encouraging callers to “definitely leave a message” if “you’ve got any beef.” When he soured on the Timberwolves in 2018, Butler cursed out his younger teammates and forced his way to the Philadelphia 76ers with a trade request. Once it became clear that the 76ers wouldn’t fully invest in him as a 2019 free agent, Butler moved on to Miami and later spoke openly about Philadelphia’s organizational shortcomings. “I didn’t know who the f--- was in charge,” he said on JJ Redick’s podcast in March.
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Without Butler’s willingness to burn bridges and deal with public blowback in search of a better fit, there’s no telling where he or the Heat would be right now. Butler might still be getting written off as a malcontent. Miami, for its part, certainly wouldn’t be in the NBA Finals.
“I'm ready for this,” Butler said, his confidence swelling after a hard-fought win that was a long time coming. “[On] the biggest stage, whatever you ask me to do, I can do.”
The back-and-forth between Butler and James added a badly needed spark to a flat Finals. James said he was “not concerned” after the loss, crediting Butler for a “phenomenal” and “big-time” performance but also pointing to the Lakers’ turnover issues and Anthony Davis’s foul trouble as areas for improvement before Tuesday’s Game 4.
Butler joined James and Jerry West on the short list of players to register 40-point triple-doubles in the Finals. Yet he understood that the Heat’s task against the favored Lakers was only beginning.
“Obviously y’all [media members are] picking us to lose,” Butler said. “Nobody’s picking us, and we really don’t care. [We’re going to] stay confident because we know we’re a good team.”
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