Butler Drops 32 on 76ers, Heat Move on to NBA's Eastern Conference Finals
The Miami Heat closed out the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday night, pulling away in the second half and holding on to win 99-90. Joel Embiid may have been the MVP candidate in this series, but Jimmy Butler was the best player game in and game out. His 32-point outburst to seal Game 6 was the type of playoff performance that has become customary for the 32-year-old swingman. Butler is averaging just under 29 points per game in this playoff run, an eight-point increase from his regular season average of 21 ppg, and has a 40-point game in each series that the Heat have played in.
It’s clear that when Miami needs a bucket, they put the ball in Butler’s hands and let him go to work. Game 6 was a night that proved when the chips are down, they can count on Butler to do the heavy lifting offensively. He shot 29 times, cashing in on 13 of those attempts. He’s powerful when attacking the basket and initiates contact with defenders.
The Sixers tried defending him with James Harden and Tobias Harris, but both looked lost as Butler weaved through and got to his spots. “I didn’t know how good Jimmy was until I got here,” noted teammate PJ Tucker in his post-game comments, “His heart. How he’s never scared of the moment.”
While Butler has always had a reliable midrange game and is lethal when driving the lane, this postseason has seen somewhat of a resurgence of his three-point shot, where he made two of six on Thursday night. He’s only shooting 24% from long range but he did have four triples in one game during the first round and has made multiple threes in each of the Heat’s last three games.
He’s no Steph Curry, or even Seth Curry for that matter, but it’s enough to make teams respect him on the perimeter, which will open those precious driving lanes even more. Of course, Butler is not the only player on this Miami team that’s stepped up in the postseason though.
Max Strus chalked up his second double-double of the playoffs, drumming up 20 points and 11 boards. Strus, one of Miami’s many undrafted gems, is playing the best basketball of his young career. He’s averaging 12.5 points per game and has the best plus/minus of any player in the postseason at 12.9.
In fact, of the top seven players in plus/minus during these playoffs, five are on the Heat (Strus, Butler, Lowry, Tucker, Adebayo). When asked about the looming Eastern Conference Finals, Strus called it “one of the biggest moments of not just [his] career but [his] life.” It’s a huge stage for Strus and fellow role players like Gabe Vincent and Tyler Herro, all three of whom have come up big for Miami already in this postseason.
Despite another poor shooting performance from beyond the arc, making only 25% of their shots, Miami was able to walk all over Philadelphia in the paint again. The Heat outscored the Sixers in paint points 62-48 and outrebounded them by 14. This came as a surprise to many experts who had predicted Philadelphia to be the more physical team in the post due to the size of Embiid and Harris.
Vic Oladipo, PJ Tucker and, of course, Bam Adebayo have looked like first team All-NBA defenders when they’re pressuring ball handlers, something the Heat will continue to take advantage of in the next round. Miami just seemed to outhustle and outmuscle Philly all night on Thursday, and for most of this series if we’re being honest.
There are a lot of questions now for this Sixer team. After selling the farm to bring in James Harden, who put up a whopping zero points on 0-for-2 shooting in the second half of Game 6, Philadelphia is left with some serious decisions to make.
Do they try to move either Harden or Harris? Perhaps both? Will Doc Rivers be in Philadelphia? Will Joel Embiid try to leave? These will be the questions that haunt Sixers fans this offseason. “The Process,” Philadelphia’s tanking strategy of the 2010’s which was lauded as a genius front office move, hasn’t amounted to much and may finally be coughing up its death rattle. It has to be a disappointing result for a fan base that watched Joel Embiid lead the league in scoring this year on a team with a very promising roster, only to be bounced in the second round.
For Jimmy Butler, it’s quite the opposite. Sweet revenge. After Philly essentially chose Tobias Harris over Butler, igniting his departure to Miami, there were a lot of people in the basketball world convinced that Butler would never see a serious playoff run again (probably the same “sources” who always said he was a locker room issue). Now with two Eastern Conference Finals appearances in three years, it looks like Butler’s gotten the last laugh for now
Jimmy Butler has embraced the Heat culture and they are loving him right back. “I’m where I belong” he said after the game, “A place where I should’ve been a long time ago.”
The Heat will move on to the conference finals to clash with either the Boston Celtics or the Milwaukee Bucks, who at the time of this writing lead that series 3-2.
