Jimmy Butler on Wednesday scored 42 points as the Miami Heat staged a second straight stunning fourth-quarter rally before winning 128-126 in overtime in Game 5 to eliminate the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks from the NBA playoffs.
Butler was an extraordinary playmaker while leading the Heat to one of the most stunning first-round playoff upsets in NBA history.
It turns out he was also a heck of a play caller.
Photo: AFP
“We’re a resilient group,” Butler said. “We stick together through everything.”
The Heat advanced to a second-round series with the fifth-seeded New York Knicks, who completed their 4-1 series win over the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier on Wednesday. Game 1 is scheduled for Sunday in New York.
Miami, who had to win a play-in game against the Chicago Bulls just to get to the first round, became the sixth No. 8 seed to beat a No. 1-seeded team.
Photo: Michael McLoone-USA TODAY
The previous time it happened was in 2012, when the Philadelphia 76ers featuring current Bucks guard Jrue Holiday capitalized on Derrick Rose’s knee injury to beat the top-seeded Bulls.
Two nights after outscoring the Bucks 30-13 in the final six minutes of a 119-115 victory in Miami, the Heat came back from a 16-point, fourth-quarter deficit and tied the game on Butler’s layup with half a second left in regulation time.
The Heat trailed 118-116 with 2.1 seconds left and called a timeout when coach Erik Spoelstra drew up a play.
Butler did not like what he saw and spoke up about it.
Spoelstra then changed his mind and set up the tying play, which had Gabe Vincent throwing an inbound pass to Butler, who was waiting underneath the basket to force overtime.
“We’ve practiced variations of that play with a bunch of different guys,” Spoelstra said. “I was going to do a different version of it. He just said: ‘No, let me be that guy.’ I just said: ‘OK, but what if we can’t get that pass.’ He said: ‘I’ll get it. Don’t worry about it.’”
Butler delivered, as he did this entire series.
He averaged 37.6 points, including a 56-point effort in Game 4.
“He’s desperate and urgent and maniacal and sometimes psychotic about the will to try to win,” Spoelstra said. “He’ll make everybody in the building feel it. That’s why he is us and we are him. That’s the way we operate as well.”
Bam Adebayo put the Heat ahead for good by dunking in a putback of Butler’s missed driving layup attempt with 4 minutes, 44 seconds left in overtime.
The Bucks trailed 128-126 and had the ball in the closing seconds, but the clock ran out before Grayson Allen could take a shot as he drove to the basket.
The Bucks had timeouts, but did not use them in the closing seconds of overtime.
Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said he did not regret not using a timeout in that situation.
He did regret not calling a timeout with half a second left in regulation time after Butler’s basket.
Asked after the game if a first-round playoff exit made this season a failure, Giannis Antetokounmpo took issue with the question.
“There’s no failure in sports,” Antetokounmpo said. “There’s good days, bad days. Some days you’re able to be successful. Some days you’re not. Some days it’s your turn. Some days it’s not your turn. That’s what sports is about. You don’t always win.”
In Sacremento, California, the Golden State Warriors had another road win, with Stephen Curry scoring 31 points and Draymond Green completing his highest-scoring game in more than five years in their 123-116 win over the Kings to take a 3-2 lead.
The Warriors won a road game for the NBA-record 28th straight playoff series, encompassing the entire era of Curry, Green and Klay Thompson.
“The experience that they’ve had over the last decade playing in a lot of big games, it’s definitely helpful,” coach Steve Kerr said. “I thought they did a great job tonight of staying poised down the stretch when Sacramento made their run and really made some big plays in the last five minutes to seal it.”
In Memphis, Tennessee, the Grizzlies staved off elimination by beating the Lakers 116-99, cutting Los Angeles’ lead in the series to 3-2.
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