Miami Heat: Coach Spo Sees ‘Playoff D-Wade’ In ‘Playoff Jimmy Butler’
"The Miami Heat are comfortably off to a 2-0 lead in their opening-round NBA Playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks. With the series heading to the Hawks’ home building in Atlanta on Friday for Game 3, the Miami Heat will need to maintain this same intensity, purpose, and mentality going on the road."
Speaking of intensity though, there is one guy who has certainly risen to the occasion to seize the moment. That would be Jimmy Butler.
Doing something on Tuesday night that only the Miami Heat’s greatest player ever, Dwyane Wade, and possibly the greatest NBA player of all time, LeBron James, had done, scoring 45 or more in a postseason performance for the Miami Heat, he also one-upped them both.
He put his 45-5-5 on the board without a single giveaway for his team. Jimmy was flawless on Tuesday night.
When speaking or thinking about one of those aforementioned all-time NBA legends though, there is something else to compare. Well, Miami Heat head coach, Erik Spoelstra, said it best, per Five Reasons Sports.
The Miami Heat got a crucial Game 2 win over the Atlanta Hawks Tuesday. On the back of a 45-point Jimmy Butler showing, his coach sees a legend in his game.
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"Erik Spoelstra calls it reasonable to compare Jimmy Butler to Dwyane Wade in terms of being more lethal from 3 in playoffs.“Would you leave Dwyane open in a big moment? You would not. Because he’s a killer. He’s gonna seize that moment. Jimmy has a lot of those same qualities.”"
When you get right down to it, Spo’s right. As everyone out there should know—Spo knows.
Dwyane Wade was never the best range shooter, a career 29.3 percent shooter from range. However, he took it up a notch in the postseason, shooting a career 33.8 percent from range in the most meaningful part of the year.
Now, 33.8 percent isn’t stupendous, but it is a hefty uptick from what he did in the regular portion of the year.
The same can be said for Jimmy, having his worst stretch of range shooting across his career during his regular seasons in Miami, he tends to rise to the occasion in the playoffs, as he has this year and as he did in the NBA Bubble.
And the man, himself, agrees!
I read no lies https://t.co/LzHVYF274D
— DWade (@DwyaneWade) April 20, 2022
It’s bigger than just the deep shot though. There is a mentality to the great ones that allow them to do this and that’s what Spo is hitting on more than any singular aspect of their respective games.
No, you wouldn’t leave D-Wade open in those moments and you shouldn’t leave Jimmy.
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Why? Because, as their top-15 coach of all time says, they’re “killers”.