Jimmy Butler is him.
The Butler-led Miami Heat eliminated Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks from playoff contention in overtime Wednesday night with a final score of 128-126. The Heat are the first play-in team to make it past the first round of the playoffs since the play-in tournament started in 2022.
Before the series between the Heat and the Bucks, the Bucks were favorites to win the series and one of the favorites to win the NBA finals. The Bucks were notably the first seed heading into the playoffs, while the Heat were the eighth seed.
The Bucks are the sixth first seed to be eliminated by an eighth seed since the NBA playoffs expanded to 16 teams in 1984. The last time an eighth seed won a playoff series against the first seed was during the 2012 NBA playoffs when the Philadelphia 76ers defeated the Chicago Bulls in six games.
Defeating the Bucks, who had the best record in the NBA this season, would not have been possible without Butler. Throughout the series, Butler averaged 37.6 points, six rebounds and 4.8 assists on 59.7% shooting from the field and 44.4% from deep.
The last player to average over 37.5 points in a playoff series was Hakeem Olajuwon in the 1987-88 NBA playoffs.
In addition to Butler’s historic series against the Bucks, Butler is responsible for the shot that sent game five to overtime. With 2.1 seconds remaining, Butler scored an alley-oop off an inbound pass, tallying his 40th point of the game.
What makes this series win for the Heat even more polarizing is that they conquered the Bucks without their star shooting guard, Tyler Herro. In the first game of the series, Herro broke his hand diving for a loose ball after playing just 19 minutes, thus ending any chance of Herro returning to the series.
Herro has averaged 20.1 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.2 assists this season on 43.9% shooting from the field. Furthermore, Herro was a critical part of the Heat’s offense all season, with his ability to hit threes at a rate of 39.7%.
Heading into this game, the Bucks were 12.5-point favorites to walk away victorious. However, a standstill offense in the 4th quarter, poor coaching decisions, and overall disappointing play from Antetokounmpo contributed to this loss just as much as Butler did.
Entering the fourth quarter, the Bucks led by 16 points. By the end of the fourth quarter, the Bucks had only scored 16 points the entire quarter, as opposed to the Heat’s 32 points in the fourth quarter.
The first shot for the Bucks to fall in the fourth quarter came after four minutes and 52 seconds of play. However, it didn’t spark anything for Milwaukee, as they had only converted three field goals the entire fourth quarter on just 13 attempts.
Regarding poor coaching decisions, Mike Budenholzer, the Bucks head coach for the last five years, failed to call a timeout with 0.5 seconds left on the clock at the end of the fourth quarter.
Although it’s complicated to get a shot up with half a second remaining, the Bucks still wasted an opportunity to win this game and extend the series. After all, when it’s a tie game, your team is in possession, and you have a timeout remaining, the clear and logical decision is to call a timeout to give your team a chance to win.
Additionally, Budenholzer refused to call a timeout throughout the overtime period. Despite being down two points with seven seconds left in overtime, Budenholzer did not call a timeout.
To dive even deeper, the Bucks would have avoided this situation if Antetokounmpo had just hit his free throws.
Time and time again this game, Antetokounmpo found himself at the line. Antetokounmpo isn’t a stellar free throw shooter by any means, as he averaged 64.5% this season. However, Antetokounmpo converted just ten of his 23 attempts from the charity stripe, a 21% drop from his regular season average.
In addition to Antetokounmpo’s poor night from the free-throw line, the “Greek Freak” managed to turn the ball over seven times. Turning the ball over has been a problem for Antetokounmpo all season. The big man averaged a career-high 3.9 turnovers during the regular season.
But when it comes down to a game where your team is on the brink of elimination, turning the ball over is even more costly. Seven turnovers equate to seven missed opportunities at making a basket.
The final nail in the coffin for the Bucks was the foul Antetokounmpo committed on Heat guard Max Strus with 40.1 seconds left in overtime. The Heat held a two-point lead before the foul and extended their lead to four points, a lead the Bucks would never be able to overcome.
Next, Butler and the Heat will face off against the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The first game of the series will kick off on Sunday, April 30.
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