Jimmy Butler is a Superstar, A Scary Offseason Thought, Sky Win Big, and Other Bulls Bullets
Jimmy Butler has somehow reached another level.
I know we’ve watched him carry his team to a shocking NBA Finals run before, but this just feels different. Miami had to play two Play-In Tournament games. They were the No. 8 seed in the conference. Upsetting the banged-up No. 1-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in five games is one thing, making it to the Eastern Conference Finals and stealing two straight on the road against the Boston Celtics is entirely another!
This is on track to be one of the most impressive individual efforts we’ve seen in postseason history. And I still don’t know exactly how to feel about it.
- I’ll spare every one of the “Chicago screwed up by trading Jimmy Butler” conversation today. Lord knows we’ve already talked about it enough this offseason! Not to mention, as frustrated as I am about the whole situation, it’s impossible not to cheer for the guy. Every time he steps on the court he plays with a ruthless underdog mentality (it’s probably all that dawg he’s got in him!). Every single team would love to have somebody with his determination and resilience. I know he might push some buttons, but all he’s shown over time is how important that can be when it comes to winning.
- Also, as I watched him score his back-to-back buckets to give the Heat a 102-100 lead with less than 3 minutes to go, he reached a new level in my brain. I realized that I usually know exactly what Butler is going to do to teams, but I’m still absolutely mesmerized when he does it. That’s a true superstar quality.
- Boston held a 96-87 lead with 6:37 left in the game. Then, Grant Williams decided to do this …
- Butler is on the VERY short list of players that you should never beef with. It’s a fight that the majority of the time you will lose in a truly ugly fashion. With that said, pretending the fact that Williams poked the bear is the reason the Celtics lost just ain’t it. Yes, Butler went on to score nine points, but Boston let the Heat go on a 24-9 run to close out the game. They allowed Bam Adebayo to finish a gut-punching putback slam and Gabe Vincent to hit arguably the biggest shot of the night. So while Butler may have helped ignite the Heat’s closing effort, it was a pretty epic collapse from Boston on their home floor.
- In an alternate universe, the Chicago Bulls take down the Miami Heat in their second Play-In Tournament game and are currently two wins away from the NBA Finals! We can all agree on that, right? In all seriousness, I’d be lying if I said I’m not at least somewhat terrified of the Bulls’ front office using the Heat’s run as an excuse for minimal activity this summer. I tweeted it out back on Thursday, but I’m already preparing myself for a quote like this from Arturas Karnisovas at Media Day: “We went 14-9 to finish the season. We felt really good about the playoffs and lost to a Heat team that went to the East Finals. If we get past them, who knows what happens?”
- The good news is more and more signs are pointing toward some drastic moves in Chicago. The organization was the talk of the draft combine, as many around the league are eager to see if the front office will make some talent available for trade. According to Sam Smith of Bulls dot com, that’s not out of the question, as he wrote that he does believe “significant changes” are on the horizon. A lot more on that here …
- Ah, the good old days!
- If you got some recommendations, help Dalen Terry out! Love to see the soon-to-not-be rookie trying to give back!
- The NBA could be on the verge of ONCE AGAIN changing the All-Star Game format. According to Mike Vorkunov and Shams Charania of The Athletic, figuring out how to make the event more competitive has remained a hot topic across the NBA. The league is reportedly considering returning to the East vs. West format, but why do we now think that would help things? Didn’t they change to the draft because they thought things were too boring?
- The Chicago Sky returned to action in style on Friday night. Kahleah Copper and Co. cruised to victory against a solid Lynx team 77-66 in Minnesota. While Copper led all scorers with 20 points, the Sky got some impressive production off the bench from both Rebekah Gardner and Alanna Smith, who combined for 25 points. What I’m easily most looking forward to with this team, however, is how they compete on the defensive end. They were relentless against the Lynx and forced them into 20 turnovers and finished with an absurd 14 steals. Overall, they won the points off TOV battle 17-8. Their next game will be tomorrow in Phoenix!
- This is some beautiful basketball!
- TAKE US TO THE PROMISED LAND J FIELDS!
- Gotta love trade talk.
