The Miami Heat get their second straight win as they beat the San Antonio Spurs inside the Kaseya Center, 116-104. What propelled them to victory was a collective effort, but it was star Jimmy Butler that put together another exceptional performance as he recorded his 15th triple-double with the organization as he scored 17 points, had 11 assists, and collected 11 rebounds.
Miami and San Antonio were going back and forth for most of the game up until the fourth quarter where Butler had a signature outing where he scored nine points and fired up the team as he was served a technical foul for calling out the officiating. He spoke after the game to the media about if getting a foul like that fuels him even more and his response might shock some people.
“Not really. I don't want to get techs, feel like sometimes you have to,” Butler said. “I got my homeboys on the sidelines hyping me up to get techs… Whatever the squad needs, I think we're really back to having fun again, like I said, it's crazy that you have to say that but we are. We're smiling, we're joking around, whenever you're having fun, good things always happen.”
Heat back to having fun, even in losses per Butler
This has been a common theme with the Heat recently in terms of their goal to get back to “having fun” which Butler first said during the team's horrid seven-game losing streak they had recently. Since then and their team meeting/film session on Jan. 30, the team has won four of their last five games, but Butler even said in that one defeat to the Los Angeles Clippers, the mood was better than before.
“I actually think even though we lost to the Clippers we was out there having fun. We were still hooping, playing the right way, we weren't down. I think we understand who we are,” Butler said. “Which is I think we may have gotten lost for a little bit in trying to be a squad trying to be individuals, instead of a group. I think we got back to that and it's looking really good.”
Erik Spoelstra said Butler “stabilized” game against Spurs
Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra spoke in his post-game presser to talk about Butler's performance saying that when the pace in the game was fast, the 34-year old star was the one to slow it down. Spoelstra even said that Butler “can do that as well as anybody in this league.”
“He [Butler] definitely just stabilized things, the game was going back and forth. The score does not indicate what the pace felt like,” Spoelstra said. “They were racing ball up whether it was a miss or make right down our guts and and we just had to kind of try to slow the game down a little bit and Jimmy can do that as well as anybody in this league, either with us playing out of the post, and that just kind of slowed things down or at the top at the floor where it's tougher for them to bring a second defender and him getting to the free throw line. and then other guys getting some easy buckets off of his attacks.”
Heat look different with Butler in “attack mode”
With the season reaching over the 50 game mark, this is usually about the time fans get to see Butler turn it up a notch and get into a different mode. It has been a long established meme at this point that he becomes a different player at this time of the year and especially when the Heat are in the playoffs as Spoelstra said the team itself looks different when he is in “attack mode.”
“We sure look and feel a lot different when he's healthy and he's in attack mode and having fun out there and really imposing his will on both sides of the floor. He was so active defensively. He was basically a one man zone,” Spoelstra said. “We are in our man to man, but he was protecting on everything and patrolling, looking for any kind of mistake the offense we make. That just speeds teams up and it speeds up our speed. We do have quickness and when he gets activated like that, it looks like we can be in two places at once sometimes.”
A different role for Butler?
It has been a different look for Butler the past few games as while the usual plan is to start him and give him a breather when there is half of a quarter left, Spoelstra has changed that. Instead, he gets a quick breather and then comes back in to help the reserves and second unit in being more of a facilitator.
This role has led to low-scoring efforts for Butler to start the game until he becomes more aggressive in the final 12 minutes of the contest. At his age, it has been shocking to see how much he has played, especially on the recent back-to-back where rest can go a long way. Either way, it is working out and paying a ton of dividends
Miami is now 28-24 on the season which puts them seventh in the Eastern Conference as they look to end their current four-game home stand out on a good note. Though, they will be facing the best team currently in the conference which is the Boston Celtics Sunday afternoon inside the Kaseya Center.
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