Jimmy Butler Did It Again, Taking Over To Lead The Heat To A Game 1 Win In Boston

The Boston Celtics appeared in control at halftime of Game 1, taking a 66-57 lead into the break with a dominant showing in the paint (40-14 advantage). Miami was hanging around thanks to some hot three-point shooting, but Boston was the team controlling the pace and getting seemingly whatever they wanted.

In the second half, things flipped, as Miami became the more physical team, led by Jimmy Butler but with contributions up and down the roster, as they turned that nine-point deficit entering the third quarter into an 11-point advantage by the time the fourth quarter arrived. While Bam Adebayo had a terrific night with 20 points, eight rebounds, and five assists and four other members of the Heat scored 15 points, it was Jimmy Butler who took center stage yet again in these playoffs.

Butler finished the game with 35 points, seven assists, six steals, and five rebounds, as he had his hands in everything the Heat were doing well on both ends of the floor. Boston struggled with how to contain Butler in the second half. When they left him single-covered, he got to his spots and buried bucket after bucket. When they sent doubles, he calmly sought out the open man who knocked down the shot more often than not — Miami shot 51.6 percent from three on the night.

As has been the case all postseason, Butler’s knack for knocking down demoralizing threes showed up again in Game 1. He shoots them sparingly (albeit, far more frequently in the playoffs), but that only makes his made threes feel like they’re worth even more. In the third quarter, as Miami had just taken the lead, he buried a corner three off some Steph Curry-like movement after passing the ball, relocating to put Miami up eight.

Then, in the fourth quarter, he sunk the dagger in the Celtics with a three that made Kevin Harlan simply exclaim “JIMMY FRICKIN’ BUTLER!” as Reggie Miller cackled at the absurdity of the shot.

While Butler refuses to acknowledge the existence of Playoff Jimmy, he was once again on full display on Wednesday night, stealing home court in the opener and forcing Boston to now play catchup. Butler certainly got help from the rest of the squad, as Gabe Vincent, Kyle Lowry, Max Strus, and Cody Martin all scored 15 points, knocking down key shots both early and late, in support of Butler and Adebayo. Still, this team will only go as far as Butler carries them, and to this point we haven’t found the limit of where that is.

For Boston, they failed to counter Miami’s adjustments to shut off the paint in the second half (and stop turning the ball over), as their offense stalled a bit and they struggled to create the same kind of looks they had gotten early in the night. Even so, they shot 51.9 percent from the field and 34.5 percent from three, which isn’t a catastrophe, which is why you’d expect a lot of their focus to be on the defensive end where they just could not get enough stops against a hot-shooting Heat team.

While it might be shooting variance, this is also the exact way Miami took down Milwaukee in the first round. This is a team that’s proven it can just keep doing this if you don’t make adjustments to take things away from them, and we’ll see if Boston can make those changes to try and slow down Playoff Jimmy and Miami’s shooters in Game 2.