Jimmy Butler’s Five-Word Message to His Coach Before Epic Buzzer-Beater Was So Jimmy Butler
By now, you’ve probably seen the circus shot Jimmy Butler hit with under a second remaining in regulation to send Game 5 between the Heat and Bucks to overtime, a game Miami would eventually win to become the sixth No. 8 seed ever to win a first-round series.
But Butler, despite having a game-high 38 points on the night at that point, wasn’t Heat coach Erik Spoelstra’s original first option for the game-tying shot. According to ESPN, Spoelstra entered the huddle and originally drew up a play for another Heat player. Butler, when informed of this, had other ideas.
"He looked me dead in the eye," Spoelstra said postgame, "and he just said, 'No. Let me be that guy.'"
JIMMY BUTLER SENDS GAME 5 TO OT ????
— NBA (@NBA) April 27, 2023
HE'S GOT 40 PTS. UNBELIEVABLE.
????: NBA TV pic.twitter.com/x9AGDSlxpC
Butler convinced Spoelstra that based on how Milwaukee’s Jrue Holiday had guarded him throughout the series that if he ran to the rim, he’d have a pocket of space.
"You could just tell the entire series that Jrue wasn't taking a body off me," Butler said, per ESPN. "He wasn't going to shoot the gap. He wasn't going to do any of that.
"So I said, 'I guarantee you that when I turn this corner, he's going to be lock-and-trail, he's going to be behind me.' ... [Spoelstra] trusted me in that moment, like he has done multiple times."
The result? With Holiday trailing behind, Butler caught the pass and scored over the outstretched arms of Pat Connaughton to send the game to overtime. Miami escaped with a 128–126 win to advance to the second round, where the Heat will take on the Knicks. Game 1 of that series is Sunday at Madison Square Garden, tipping off at 1 p.m. ET.