Jimmy Butler’s dagger has the Heat on the precipice of history

Photo by Issac Baldizon/NBAE via Getty Images

Jimmy Butler missed when he went for the win in Game 7 against the Celtics last season. This year, his dagger was nothing but net against the Bucks.

Jimmy Butler raced down the court with the ball in his hands and the game on the line. There was less than one minute left in a playoff game with massive stakes, and whatever Butler decided to do next would determine the outcome.

The easier option might have been to slow it down, to call for a screen, and to try to get downhill. After all, Butler is one of the league’s most determined drivers, a master at playing through contact and getting to the foul line. It’s the safer choice in this situation, the one nobody is going to second guess regardless of how it turns out.

The other option is to go for the kill shot. It’s attacking a scrambled defense by taking the shot they want you to take. It’s a pull-up jumper that will win the game if you make it, but might lose the game if you miss it. It would be an audacious shot for any player in this situation, but it’s an especially bold choice for an outside shooter as shaky as Butler, someone who hasn’t hit 40 total three-pointers in a season in four years.

Make it and you’re a legend. Miss it and it’s going to be a long summer with everyone wondering what the hell you were thinking.

Butler was tasked with the exact same decision in consecutive years in the NBA Playoffs. Both times, he made the same choice. This time, it went in.

The Miami Heat beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 119-114, in Game 4 of their first round series in the 2023 NBA Playoffs. The No. 8 seed Heat now have a 3-1 series lead on the No. 1 seed Milwaukee Bucks, and just might pull off what would be one of the biggest upsets in NBA history.

Butler didn’t just make the biggest shot of the game for Miami — he made almost every shot. He finished the night with 56 points and nine rebounds, and played all 48 minutes of the game. He shot 19-of-28 from the field, 3-of-8 from the three-point line, and 15-of-18 on free throws. He did this against one of the very best defenses in the NBA, against a championship team fighting for its life while down 2-1 in the series.

Over the last eight minutes and change of the game, Butler outscored the Bucks by himself, clawing his team out of an 11-point deficit and putting them on the brink of an upset no one thought they could pull off. He scored on Giannis Antetokounmpo, he scored scored on Jrue Holiday, he scored on Brook Lopez. He had Khris Middleton in such a tizzy that he fouled out.

It’s legitimately one of the best playoff performances in NBA history.

A year ago, Butler had the Miami Heat in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Boston Celtics. He had just scored 47 points on 16-of-29 shooting for a road win in Game 6, and he was going off against Boston again with a spot in the NBA Finals on the line.

Butler went for the kill shot this time, too. He missed, and just like that the Celtics won Game 7 and the Eastern Conference.

Butler had been so heroic throughout the Heat’s run in the 2022 playoffs, but he caught some criticism for taking that shot in that moment. Asked about his decision after the game, Butler didn’t back down:

“My thought process was go for the win, which I did,” Butler said. “Missed the shot. But I’m taking that shot. My teammates like the shot that I took. So I’m living with it.”

When Butler came to the Heat, he had a reputation as a locker room cancer who was more trouble than he was worth. He had worn out his welcome with the Chicago Bulls, the team that drafted and developed him, and who believed he wasn’t good enough for a max contact on his next deal. He was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves, where he helped break the franchise’s 15-year playoff drought, then nearly burned the franchise to the ground with one of the most memorable practice tirades in league history. He was sent to the Philadelphia 76ers, who came up short in their big swing at an NBA Finals run. The team decided they wanted to keep Ben Simmons and Tobias Harris instead of him.

In Chicago, he told the Bulls to pick between him and head coach Fred Hoiberg. The Bulls picked Hoiberg. In Minnesota, he told team executives “you can’t fucking win without me” and called out Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins for not being true leaders. In Philadelphia, he refused to defer to Simmons as a ball handler in big moments during the playoffs. With the benefit of hindsight, it’s clear Butler wasn’t wrong about anything even if he went about it in a way that made people uncomfortable.

In reality, Butler just needed an organization that could match his intensity. He found it in Miami. At this point, the concerns about Butler being a cancer in the locker room seem laughable when he just might be the NBA’s premier big game performer.

Butler has never scored 40 points in a game for the Heat in the regular season. He’s now done it seven times for Miami in the playoffs. He willed the Heat to the NBA Finals inside the bubble in 2020. He came one shot away from going to the NBA Finals again in 2022. Now a No. 8 seed in the East that needed to win a game in the play-in tournament just to qualify for the playoffs, Butler and Miami are a win away from sending the championship-favorite Bucks packing for a long and stressful summer.

It won’t be easy for the Heat to get one more win in this series. Miami earned a Game 1 W after Giannis exited with a back injury in the first half. Milwaukee won Game 2 without him, but Miami won Game 3 as Giannis remained sidelined. With Antetokounmpo coming back for Game 4, Butler stared down the game’s best player and showed the world no one is better than him in the playoffs.

The Heat never had much firepower as it was this season — and they have even less in this series after Tyler Herro broke his hand. If Miami is going to win one more game and knock out the Bucks, Butler is probably going to need another 40+ point game. At this point, who is going to bet against him?