Playoff Breakdown: Historic Game From Jimmy Butler Forces Game 7
Published originally for Miami Heat Beat
This series was over. The Miami Heat weren’t going to win another game after going up 2–1. Everyone had written the Heat off. We had Draymond Green say that they’re going to play against the Boston Celtics before Game 6.
Maybe this is recency bias, but this was one of the best games that I’ve watched live — certainly up there if we’re speaking only about the Heat. The only game that comes to mind is the finals in 2020.
But what Jimmy freaking Butler did in this game was truly remarkable — 47 points, nine rebounds, eight assists, four steals, and only one turnover. Then you look at the efficiency and it gets even better — 16-for-29, 4-for-8 from 3, 11–11 from the free-throw line, and that’s a nice 69.4 percent true shooting.
21 players have put 40–8–8 in the playoffs. You add his steals and it’s only three other players. Then you add that he shot 50 percent or better and you get a list of LeBron James and Michael Jordan. That’s a pretty decent company to be with.
This is ignoring the fact that this was a Game 6 elimination game on the road.
We, Heat fans, are lucky to have Butler on this team.
But you know, as great of a performance as he had, they don’t win the game without everyone else stepping up the way they did. Bam Adebayo was great on defense, Kyle Lowry showed up after going scoreless in the previous game, and Max Strus had some great shots.
Offensive Breakdown:
Butler scored 47 points and the way he scores his points, I can never tell when he has these sorts of games. When you watch Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, or Giannis Antetokounmpo, they get their points in the way you feel it throughout the game.
I feel like Butler is different. He gets his points in a quiet way. And an underrated part of his scoring is through cutting.
Butler’s awareness and knowing when to cut, and then capitalize is what makes his off-ball scoring so effective. He takes advantage of his defender not paying attention and regularly makes a great cut into the paint for easy points.
I guess that’s what I mean by him getting quiet points. They are not self-created or making tough shots, but instead just moving into space.
It wasn’t until closer to the end of the game that the offense became match-up hunting. Here’s a compilation of what the offense looked like:
As you can see, the offense was whoever has Derrick White on them, go set a screen for Butler. And in the third quarter, that’s what the Heat constantly tried to get because the Celtics allowed that switch to happen.
In the first two clips, you can see that they simply allow Butler to go at White. This leads to drives to the paint and a kick out to Victor Oladipo in the corner for 3. Or it leads to Butler getting to his spot in the mid-range and making it with ease.
It wasn’t until the fourth that the Celtics tried to avoid switching. It didn’t work most of the time, though. It did make it harder for Butler to get the screen, but in the third clip, he makes a good move to not use the screen once Jayson Tatum commits to going over.
The last clip shows why match-up hunting can be such an effective offensive plan because it forces the defense to react and potentially make these mistakes.
Because they don’t want to switch, White shows up and tries to recover, but Marcus Smart seems like he’s staying with Strus. Butler has all the space to turn the corners, and though it turns into a late switch with Al Horford, Butler is already going downhill.
Butler wasn’t the only one picking on White.
Here, it’s a Kyle Lowry, Bam Adebayo pick-and-roll (PnR). Knowing that they don’t want to switch, they get White involved, as Horford will likely be in a drop. So, Lowry is able to use the screen (great flipping the angle by Adebayo), he snakes the dribble and gets into the paint. Adebayo’s roll collapses the defense and that means Butler can lift for a catch-and-shoot 3.
Now, ideally, I’d like someone else taking that shot, but the idea works.
Defensive Breakdown:
The Heat throughout the playoffs have been playing off of shooters. This meant extra help at the nail or loading up on the paint from the corners to prevent any drives to the rim.
It seems like they’ve taken this to another level when it comes to defending Smart.
No one respects Smart as a shooter at all. Not only are they helping off, but they are completely disregarding him once they do send help. They are sending traps, doubles, helping extra when it’s Smart one pass away, and for good reasons, though.
The second clip is funny because you see Strus defending further than just at the nail, but when the pass gets moved to Smart, Butler doesn’t think to stunt.
In this series, Smart is 8-for-28 on 3s. In this series, he’s shooting 22.7 percent on catch-and-shoot 3s. So, the Heat are forcing Smart to beat them and it’s been paying off. They send extra help to guys that do the most damage and if Smart takes a shot, you live with that.
Just as the Heat went at White late in the game, the Celtics did the same thing when it comes to Gabe Vincent.
In the first clip, Butler stays with Tatum on that White screen, but Vincent tries to show and recover. This opens up White on a short roll (this was also a play that happened in previous games). Now, it was a good rotation by Adebayo and there was no basket made, but that was that plan for the Celtics.
In the second clip, it’s Tatum who’s the screener. The Heat also don’t want to switch this, so Butler is slightly showing to prevent the drive but quickly goes back to Tatum on the perimeter. This allows White to accelerate and beat Vincent who’s still recovering to get back in front. This drive-by White causes some miscommunication between Oladipo and Adebayo, which results in an open 3.
Both teams have gone down the route of hunting match-ups but almost rarely did it end with a pound the ball, dribble-dribble, isolation move. That’s what makes this kind of action effective because it forces the defense to make a decision, which will open up a lot of other shots.