Playoff Jimmy was nowhere to be found on Tuesday night. Jimmy Butler's vaunted postseason persona may not translate the same way to the Play-In Tournament, where the Miami Heat got dismantled by the Atlanta Hawks, 116-105.
Butler finished with 21 points and 9 assists, but his points came on a brutal 6-of-19 shooting clip that included several point-blank misses at the rim. He spoke out on the Heat's lackluster performance against a Hawks team that came to play.
“We've definitely got to start out better,” said Jimmy Butler after the Heat loss. “That's been a problem of ours all-year long and it's just another day that that's happened. Rebounding was just horrendous. We didn't put body on body and they got all the rebounds and all the second chance points. That was the game.”
The slow start put Miami in an early hole, trailing by double-digits in the first quarter and never getting closer than five points the rest of the way. The massive rebounding gap made sure they wouldn't be able to climb out of said hole, with the Hawks winning the rebound battle, 63-39. Their 22 offensive rebounds more than tripled Miami's total as Atlanta pounded the paint all night.
“It was just an overall bad game. … Come Friday, we've got to play legit the exact opposite from tonight,” the Heat star continued.
The Heat have one last chance to punch their ticket for the playoffs. They'll need to erase last game's effort as they face the victor of the 9-10 Play-In Tournament matchup between the Chicago Bulls and Toronto Raptors.
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