Miami Heat: Jimmy Butler Has To ‘Turn It On’ Earlier Moving Forward
For much of the regular season and some throughout these playoffs, Jimmy Butler has come out coasting for his Miami Heat, helping the rest of his guys get going first. Knowing that he can turn it on to get himself going at any point he sees fit, he has typically come out to make sure the team gets in an offensive rhythm first in much of his Miami Heat tenure.
Again, that’s something that you have also seen in these playoffs, with Jimmy knowing exactly when or which games he needed to turn it on from the very onset. Well, that approach won’t work from this point moving forward.
After Thursday night’s Game 2 shellacking, Jimmy Butler has to come out looking to be Jimmy G Buckets from the very tip. Simply put, he waited a bit too late in Game 2.
The Miami Heat need to give Jimmy Butler some help moving forward. However, he has to help his team and himself out too by getting going earlier in games.
For starters and after the Miami Heat came out engaged, so much so to go up 10 or so points early, they would allow the Celtics to overtake them and go on a run of their own to create a big Heat deficit. Jimmy waited until too late to come on there in the first half.
Knowing what he needed to do immediately after the halftime break, he showed in that third period what he can do and how he needs to do it. He showed how he can push the Miami Heat forward into positivity, dominate the other team while doing it, and all while controlling the pace, tempo, and narrative of the game.
That’s what he did in that third-quarter run that, though, came up much too short, should have provided a few things. While it would only provide a glimmer of hope in Game 2, it should have provided an entire doorway of hope moving forward throughout the series and the rest of this Miami Heat run.
Yes, he will undoubtedly need help from the rest of his teammates but if Jimmy Butler comes out aggressive and attacking from the very onset of the game, you still feel really good about the Miami Heat’s chances. Well, they can’t allow the Celtics to make 20 threes either, but that’s something you expect not to happen.