DENVER — Around 9 pm Saturday, Jimmy Butler was in a gym at the University of Colorado at Boulder working on his bunt shots near the rim. He had had 48 hours to think about what had gone wrong for him and the Miami Heat in Game 1 of the NBA Finals just two days earlier, and what he could do about it for Game 2.
Earlier on Saturday, Butler told the media that he planned to try out an escape room in Denver that night and do “normal stuff,” which is something he likes to do.
But when the time came, Butler didn’t run into an escape room. Instead, he ran off to the gym, accompanied by his trainer Chris Brickley.
“He just likes to figure things out,” Brickley told ESPN. “When he takes those short shots, everything is different. So we work on that.”
Butler spent 30 minutes taking shots just to get his touch back.
“He needs to see the ball come in,” Brickley said. “Games that haven’t done that [before the game]He hasn’t played well. He’s big on it. He’s a mental thing.”
This is what Butler and the Heat have been doing during the eighth-seeded Heat’s run to the NBA Finals: figure out what needs to be done to win, and then go out and do it.
Butler finished with 21 points in the Heat’s 111-108 win over the Denver Nuggets on Sunday night at Ball Arena to tie these Finals at one game apiece. But it was how he did it — being more aggressive coming into the paint, taking 14 shots from inside 18 feet and making five free throws — that mattered.
Compared to some of his other offensive heroics during these playoffs, it was a pretty pedestrian stat for Butler. But it was enough, and that’s why the Heat have evened these Finals as the series returns to Miami for Game 3 (Wednesday, 8:30 pm ET on ABC).
“We’re so focused on what we do well and who we are as a group that at the end of the day, that’s what we do,” Butler said after Sunday’s win. “Make shots or miss, we’re going to be who we are because we’re not worried about anybody else. It’s been that way all year, and that’s not going to change.”
The Heat are a team that continues to figure out how to win games and series against teams that are heavy favorites, no matter how heartbreaking the loss they just endured (see Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals), how many injuries to players who have suffered (Tyler Herro and Victor Oladipo) or the talent of a superstar they’ve been paired with.
In this series, that superstar is two-time MVP Nikola Jokic, who was sublime by recording his 15th career playoff triple-double in Game 1.
Jokic controlled every facet of the series opener with brilliant plays and passes, finishing with 14 assists as the Heat dispatched multiple defenders and threw zone defenses at him. He made five shots before the fourth quarter, then started scoring to end a Heat streak and finished with 27 points.
In Game 2, the Heat shifted their defensive approach to Jokic, allowing him to score more but limiting his ability to make plays for others.
Jokic read Miami’s defense and scored 11 points in the first quarter and a game-high 41 on the night. But he finished with five turnovers and just four assists, and Denver has struggled when Jokic can’t command his offense with his usual poise.
During the regular season, Denver went 3-7 when Jokic had fewer than six assists. As a team, the Nuggets had just six passes to drive-thru players, none of which came from Jokic, the fewest in the playoffs, according to Second Spectrum.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra scrapped the characterization that the Heat had simply chosen to turn Jokic into a scorer on Sunday to take away his game.
“That’s ridiculous, that’s the untrained eye saying something like that,” Spoelstra said. “This guy is an incredible player. You know, twice in two seasons he’s been the best player on this planet. You can’t just say, ‘Oh, make him a scorer.’ That’s not how they play. They have so many different actions that they just engage you.
“We have to focus on what we do. We try to do things the hard way, and he requires you to do a lot of things the hard way. He has our respect.”
Respect is one thing. Strategy and adjustments are another. Miami did plenty of those on Sunday night (after Spoelstra said “the plan isn’t going to save us” following Miami’s Game 1 loss), inserting Kevin Love into their starting lineup for Caleb Martin and trying to disrupt Jokic’s ability to facilitate for the Nuggets. ‘ other scorers. Jokic responded more aggressively, taking 28 shots, hitting 16 of them. But that’s not always good for the Nuggets.
The Nuggets are 0-3 when Jokic scores 40 or more points during the playoffs and 13-1 when he scores fewer than 40, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
“I mean, he’s a great player,” Butler said. “He passes the ball so unbelievably well. Obviously, he can score the ball like he did tonight. But when you get a chance to turn the ball over and go out on the court, I feel like we have to do that.” And we did a decent job on that today.”