2020 NBA Finals: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Miami Heat

Butler only sat out for 1 minute the entire game. Jimmy literally gave it his all on an elimination game... without their playmaker Dragic.

Dantoni would make Harden get his usual rest lol.

 

That was a choke job by Lebron at the end.

His precious clutch stats doesn't get affected but there's a reason why hes 3-6 in the nba finals in his career. He doesn't take the shot in situations where he needs to.

Would the defense see Lebron [15/21 fg] shoot or a lesser talented Danny Green? He fell right into the heats plan...he should've pulled up and shot it

 

You are 100% right they would say that if Harden drove.

95% chance he shoots step back 3’s though

 

how in the world is butler playing like this? and you can't say heart or grit, because then apparently he's just been holding back on all his other teams if he just needed to try. we've got 7 years of evidence from butler. his teams have almost always partially been limited by the fact that butler was a tier 2 star/fringe all-star, and not a superstar. his teams have struggled late in games because you usually get a 18 footer from jimmy and it misses more than it goes in. before this year, his career high was 36 in a playoff game and he never had more than 9 assists (twice) in a playoff game. and it's not like he was on cruise control because his teams were winning so much.

but in just these finals, he's matched his career high (40 from milwaukee game 1) and had his 3rd most points tonight. he's had his 2nd and 3rd best playoff shooting games ever (min 16 shots, only a 12/17 from a few years ago was better), tied his career high in assists once, and broken his career playoff high in assists 3 OTHER TIMES! in just 5 games. even in this remarkable run, he didn't even lead the heat in scoring in a close conference finals where it wasn't like he was holding back. this is among the least explainable finals runs by a player you're ever going to see.

 

butler gets the call people think harden gets. his free throw rate in this playoffs is 60% higher than his career average. 4 ft's in the final minute of a season-saving finals game? conspiracy theorists would be going crazy if even lebron or jordan got those calls, much less jimmy butler. giannis ain't getting those. luka isn't. harden could probably be murdered and laying in a pool of blood and not get 4 late ft's like that. it's crazy how much they love giving him calls.

 

Lol what? Dude was double teamed and had help defenders closing in.

Yeah he could have shot it and bricked it like Kobe would have. The difference between Game 7 2010 and now is that Artest bailed Kobes ass out. Just like Ray bailed LeBron out.

It's a team game man.

The only part I would agree with you is he should have told DG to get the **** away from him and iso'd.

 

there is no version of anything harden could have done this year to get the rockets over the lakers (short of just shooting 100% or something). you're "2nd best" player cannot have the series westbrook had and expect to beat AD and lebron. i don't care how much harden decided to run around or do whatever. butler is having a series that butler himself has never even come close to having before, this is an out of body experience at this point. it's not like other non-lebron people have had a finals series like this, either.

let's not rewrite the jimmy butler story. how much more dogged could he get than those bulls teams he was on? thibs, noah, taj gibson, that's as dogged as it gets. why didn't he do this back then? why didn't he want to be there? does he just get to float around for 10 years and then finally decide he's got a team with enough dog in them that they are worthy of him playing hard? philly barely lost last year on a 4-bounce buzzer beater in game 7. they could have used 40/13/11 jimmy or 35/12/11 jimmy. they got 22/7/6 jimmy. right now, the bubble, the heat culture, the team of destiny feel miami has have all combined to give us a jimmy butler that's never been seen before in these finals. is some of it his attitude? sure. but where's it been all these years? it's not like he's been doing this and being held back by weak teammates. it's shocking precisely because it was unexpected based on tons of evidence from beforehand.

 

He's averaging 10 ft a game. If Harden got that, we would have gotten past Lakers.

 

Day it again.
Will Jimmy repeat this next year
All year?

Has he been load managing? During games like he did early in the fourth.

Rocket River

 

LOL at folks blaming LeBron for passing as if Paxson and Kerr didn’t clinch two Finals for Jordan. Even Artest clinched one for bricking ass Kobe and freaking Avery Johnson clinched one for Duncan. Green...two time champion...just missed.

 

yep, this stretch of knocking down that midrange, and esp the turnaround are a headscratcher.

But the volume stats you listed like assists and points is explained by playing 47 minutes tonight. He's averaging 45 mpg in last 4 games. It's like when we wonder in amazement about volume stats from the 60's. So, in that regard, it is grit ... his minutes differential between him and his opponents should result in noticeably tired legs, like that few minutes in the mid-4th. But tonight is the only time I saw it.

 

This man. Danny Green hits that shot and we aren't even talking about this BS. It was the right play although the right play could of also been LeBron going up with it.

Whatever though, glad the Lakers lost.

 

the extra minutes make it look slightly less crazy, but if you go back to when butler really became a big playoff performer 5 years ago, his numbers are:

previous 4 years: 20.7 / 4.2 in 38.2 mpg (per 36: 19.5 / 4.0)
previous 3 rounds: 20.7 / 4.5 in 36.6 mpg (per 36: 20.4 / 4.4)
this year's finals: 29.0 / 10.2 in 42.7 mpg (per 36: 24.4 / 8.6)

guy is having one of his best scoring rates ever (might even be his best round but i didn't check) and far from lowering his assists, far from keeping them steady, he's somehow doubled his playoff average, even on a per 36 basis. i'd be curious how many times this has ever happened for a 20 point scorer type player. the assist increase might be unprecedented.

 

considering duncan robinson was the only guy with a real chance to challenge and lebron would have been able to get the shot off, i want to see lebron go up with that with the finals on the line (and i'm obviously a lebron fan). i think it's the right play considering he was 15/21 on the night and they're down 1. but there's also no doubt that danny green was "early to practice" wide open and it's more of a 60/40 type play than a straight up bad decision to pass to him.

 

LeBron isn't a glory seeker to the point where he disregards his wide open teammate and tries to muscle it in over 2 defenders. He 100% made the right play. Danny Green just couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.

 

If you watched the play again, Jimmy Butler had leapt in the air as a help defender, ready to block LeBron's shot attempt. But I think Lebron intended to pass to Green all along, since he saw Robinson in front of him, knowing that Green didn't have a defender on him.

If LeBron tried to take it himself, I think it would have been blocked by Butler.

 

Butler was never the primary offensive weapon in every team he's ever been a part of.

Chicago? Rose and Noah dictated the offense.
Minny? KAT and Wiggins.
Philly? Embiid and Simmons.

Hell, even on this bubble Miami team, Dragic was the leading scorer throughout while Bam was lauded as the best defender on the team. I think Butler HAD to be that guy; if Dragic never got hurt, I don't think we see Butler explode like this.

 

HUH???

 

Lebron is 6 out of 9 from 3. He was 15 of 21 from the field. He had it going. He didn't want to shoot and it showed the last 2 possessions as he passed it off to Pope and then Green. Green has stunk all playoffs. Your best players need to take the last shots to win the game. Green is shooting under 30% and the Heat left him open for a reason and Lebron played right into the plan. Lebron scared to take pull up jumper when he was guarded 1 on 1 top of the court.