Heading back home to the friendly confines of the FTX Arena, the Miami Heat now find themselves in a dogfight of a series with the Philadelphia 76ers. Going to Philly, only to allow the 76ers to tie the series up at 2-2 after two games in their building, the Miami Heat now have to go home to defend their home turf.
While the pressure is still, somewhat, on Philadelphia, as the Miami Heat have two of the remaining possible three games in their building, the Heat aren’t off the hook at all here in dropping two straight after going up 2-0 in the series.
The return of Joel Embiid has clearly impacted the series, but that might not be the only return. Though he wasn’t “out”, James Harden looked the most like the Houston version of himself that he has since he actually left Houston on Sunday night.
A steady dose of that isn’t the most ideal situation for the Miami Heat but still, they should be able to win this series.
Miami Heat: Jimmy Butler’s Outlier In Franchise Playoff Record Books
Even with Embiid’s MVP presence and James Harden looking like he isn’t, at all, as done as many would have you to believe, the Heat had to have two of their most peculiar offensive showings of the year to lose both games.
They would score their second-lowest total of the year in Game 3, only to come out and shoot worse from range in Game 4 (20 percent at 7-35 from three) than they did in Game 3 (23 percent at 7-30 from three).
Those are two outliers and the only reasonable assumption, based on everything else they’ve done this season, is that they won’t be that bad again.
They definitely won’t be that bad twice in a row, at best guess, but you assume those are two of the worst games you’ll see from them this postseason at all. Speaking of something being the “worst” though, this next occurrence is one of the worst possible.
Miami Heat: Jimmy Butler Had An All-Time Franchise Game 4, But They Took An L
The Miami Heat got an all-time franchise showing from Jimmy Butler for a playoff game. The only thing, of course, is that it came in defeat.
Check this tidbit out.
This will be the first time a Heat player has scored at least 40 in a playoff game and Miami didn't win.
— Tim Reynolds (@ByTimReynolds) May 9, 2022
Heat had been 13-0 all-time in such situations before tonight.
You love that he had a dominant showing. Heck, he’s been there all playoffs long, carrying the Miami Heat, and specifically scoring 73 points across their last two games, the two Philly defeats.
Back to something being the worst of its kind again though, you hate that this record and those two showings came in a losing effort, thus putting him on the wrong side of the record books like this. It was a phenomenal performance by Jimmy, as he had in Game 3, however, he’s the only guy to have a showing like that and not get the victory.
You hate to see it. You, especially, hate to see it for a guy like Jimmy Butler who does things the right way, it appears.
He’s doing his job, but he just needs some help. And to his help, let’s not let another occurrence of his greatness be recorded like this in the annals of history—please?