Jimmy Butler appears assured the Heat will get rid of the Knicks on Friday — particularly if he by no means leaves the courtroom.
“If [coach Erik Spoelstra] tells me to play 48 minutes, I’ll be suited and booted and ready to do that,” Butler mentioned. “And we’ll win.”
The supply made “we’ll win” really feel extra like a throwaway than a assure from Miami’s finest participant, however it definitely continued Butler’s theme of assuredness in his postgame presser. For the primary time in these playoffs, he was decidedly outplayed by an opponent, Jalen Brunson, who truly performed all 48 minutes in Wednesday’s Game 5 and stored New York’s coronary heart beating for at the very least a pair extra days.
Now a number of the stress shifts again to the Heat, which must win at dwelling on Friday evening to keep away from a Game 7 on the highway.
“I don’t ever think losing is encouraging,” Butler mentioned. “I hope that the only way is up from here. So we will be better the next game.”
Butler’s 19 factors in Game 5 represented the bottom of his final 10 postseason video games, and, for the Knicks, a lot of the credit score belonged to Quentin Grimes. The defensive specialist, like Brunson, by no means rested Wednesday evening. They grew to become the primary Knicks duo to log all 48 minutes in a playoff recreation since Walt Frazier and Jerry Lucas in 1972.
Over 50 years in the past.
Grimes saved his most spectacular play for the ultimate minutes, a defensive cease that helped seal the 112-103 victory. After getting clobbered by Bam Adebayo on a display screen with 1:50 left and a six-point Knicks lead, Grimes got here up limping however recovered fast sufficient to entrance Butler on the perimeter.
Hobbling by way of his first couple steps, Grimes anticipated Butler’s right-handed dribble and stripped the longer term Hall of Famer. It was in the course of a pivotal 90-second scoreless stretch from Miami.
“I had just bent my knee on the screen, but it’s the playoffs,” Grimes mentioned. “You have to do whatever you can to win. It’s what you live for, it’s what you watched as a kid. So I knew I was hurt a little bit, but it’s not going to stop me from doing whatever I can to get a stop or disrupt the play.”
It was a redemptive efficiency from Grimes, who struggled within the opening spherical towards Cleveland, suffered a shoulder harm, and was faraway from the beginning lineup for the primary three video games of the Miami sequence.
“[Butler’s] probably been the best player of the playoffs so far. So knowing I have that matchup every night, I have to be more disciplined and probably have to play 48,” Grimes mentioned.
Butler, who performed all the second half and completed with 43 minutes and 9 assists, mentioned his low scoring output wasn’t a mirrored image of New York’s protection — however reasonably a purposeful strategy to get his teammates concerned.
“I was making all the right plays. I’m not a scorer anyways,” he mentioned. “Nineteen is enough for us to win. If we make a couple more shots, I don’t think that question is asked the exact same way. It doesn’t matter if I score 40 or 50, 19 or 9, we always have enough to win. And if I score 10 points the next game and we win, that won’t be an issue, that won’t be a question, and I’ll continue to play the right way.”
The concern with that technique is the Heat lacks offensive firepower apart from Butler, who wanted to attain 56 factors and 42 factors to shut out the Bucks within the last two video games of Round 1.
Now he’s anticipating a Heat victory and a Knicks elimination on Friday evening, whereas Brunson, the hero of Game 5, was locked into getting again to Madison Square Garden.
“Nothing really to celebrate,” Brunson mentioned. “We obviously won, get to see another day. This is great, but we got to go get one down there.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com