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Watch what happens on the game sealing steal by Jimmy Butler riiight there. Did you catch it? Let’s run it back.
We got Al Horford in the corner with 2 guys in front closing the driving lane. And at this moment Jimmy takes a peak and sees both Tatum and Brogdon with their hands up. So as Horford dribbles one last time, Butler knows what follows and he’s already headed out to the perimeter. A crosscourt pass right in his hands a clutch stop that ultimately led to a game 1 win for Miami on the road.
This was yet another masterpiece by Playoff Jimmy. Let me break it down.
What’s crazy is that he did the exact same thing the very next possession. Watch him dance back and forth ever so slightly to be in the perfect position to both help on the drive but also bait Tatum into throwing this pass, and we got another steal when it matters the most.
You can see that on display one more time here as he follows the play but also glances back and sees Williams pointing for the lob. And as we let it roll, this is yet another steal for Butler.
In fact he had 6 of them in game 1, in another monster playoff game with 35, 5 rebounds and 7 assists. Listen maaan playoff Jimmy is a thing.
Look at his effort now on the offensive end. He drops it off to Adebayo and at this moment as the shot goes up, you see that there are 3 Celtics players all around him, there’s no way that he should get this ball. Not only does he outhustle everyone but gets the bucket and the foul. Unbelievable.
His aggressiveness on the drive attracts the double team, and as we stop it right here watch for 2 things. 1- a phenomenal athletic play by Jimmy to find the open Martin in the corner over this double team, but 2- the great read by Adebayo who as soon as he senses where this pass is going to go sets a screen for Smart so he cannot rotate. And of course this open shot goes in.
Look, when you’re shooting 51.6% from downtown and getting crazy bounces to go in like this one at the end, you’re going to win, but the insane amount of fight, and hustle that this team has shown is undeniable.
And here’s another proof of that. This postseason Miami have faced a double digit deficit in 7 games so far including last night. And they won 5 of those games, an astonishing 71% of the time. Comparing them to the rest of playoff teams the difference is crazy.
Meaning that you can never write this team off, they keep fighting and keep coming at you.
And the best part about it is:
I don’t know if the Heat can knock down as many shots in game 2 but I know for sure that it’s going to be the same type of dog fight, and we might just get another 7 games in the conference finals from these 2 teams just like a year ago.
Were you surprised by this? Who you got for game 2? Comment down below. Talk to you in the next one. Peace out.