Getty Jimmy Butler reacts during a game between the Miami Heat and the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Miami Heat have been going through it of late, coming out with a lackadaisical approach to games and then struggling to recover down the stretch across multiple losses. Friday night’s setback against the New York Knicks was especially heartbreaking, though.
Miami struggled out of the gate once again, conceding 71 first-half points. However, the second-half effort was on point, the perimeter attack was finally there — the Heat shot 48% from deep — and Jimmy Butler came up with multiple deflections on the game’s final play, a sequence that normally would have sealed the win.
On this occasion, however, Knicks star Julius Randle somehow found himself with the ball and in a position to shoot despite Butler’s lockdown effort. So, with the game clock nearing its expiration, he connected on a difficult shot from three-point range to steal a 122-120 win from the Heat.
After the game, Butler was left verklempt by what transpired on that decisive possession.
Jimmy Butler Laments Heat’s Early-Game Effort After Buzzer-Beating Loss to Knicks
While the endgame sequence clearly stung, Butler was clearly more concerned about what happened in the early going after the loss.
Asked about the level of disappointment and/or frustration he has felt amid his club’s recent trend of putting itself behind the eight ball, Butler — who finished with a team-high 33 points in the contest — essentially threw his hands up.
“I mean, I’m at a point now — I think everybody is — where it doesn’t surprise us. We just really get bored with the process and I can’t tell you why and we play hard and sometimes we get back in the game like we did tonight and sometimes we don’t,” Butler said.
“Either way it goes, if we just play basketball the right way the entire game, I don’t think that we’re in that situation more often than not. But, for some odd reason, we think it’s gonna be easy, so we just go out there and go through the motions.”
Over the last seven games — during which they have compiled a 1-6 record — the Heat have been outscored by 12.9 points per 100 possessions in the first half of games. During that stretch, they’ve conceded 70-plus first-half points to the Knicks, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Milwaukee Bucks.
Butler Reflects on Julius Randle’s Game-Winner
Miami’s half-court defense was stout on the Knicks’ last-chance play and Butler’s effort against the much-bigger Randle was particularly suffocating. In the end, though — and against all odds — the ball just didn’t bounce the Heat’s way. And Butler had no answers as to why things played out that way.
“Hell if I know, but that’s what happens. Like, that’s just the karma of the game when he’s having a night like he was having” Butler lamented. “You knock the ball loose — somehow, some way it ends up in his shooting pocket — and he turns and shoots and he had been making those shots all game.
“Man, you gotta tip your hat to that… to what they did to us on our home floor. That’s tough, but we didn’t deserve to win, we did not, and they got one.”
Randle scored 43 points on 16-of-25 shooting in the contest and hit eight three-pointers.