Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat got ripped apart by Denver Nuggets in a 104-93 loss in Game 1. Expected by many to carry the Heat, Butler mustered just 13 points on a poor 6-for-14 shooting from the field. Even worse was the fact that he failed to make a single trip to the foul line, where he usually gets a bunch of his points in the playoffs.
Butler pointed that out in the postgame press conference as a reason for Miami's downfall in the series opener.
“Probably because we shot a lot of jumpshots, myself probably leading that pack, instead of putting pressure on the rim, getting lay-ups, getting to the free throw line. When you look at it during the game, they all look like the right shots,” Jimmy Butler said when asked about why the Heat struggled to find their groove offensively.
Butler settled for pull-ups and jumpers most of the time in the game, but his shots just weren't falling, as he was being covered by bigger and longer defenders like Aaron Gordon.
“And I'm not saying that we can't as a team make those, but got to get more layups, got to get more free throws. And whenever you miss and don't get back, the game gets out of hand kind of quickly. We gave up too many lay-ups which we also can't have happen. But that's it as a whole. We've got to attack the rim a lot more, myself included,” Butler added.
In retrospect, Jimmy Butler knew that he should have attacked the rim more to get fouls and earn some points off free-throw attempts. Butler entered Game 1 of the 2023 NBA Finals with 25 percent of his points coming from the foul line. The Heat, as a whole, got 14.6 percent of their scoring output off free throws and attempt 20 per game, but only had two such shots in Game 1, courtesy of a reliever in Haywood Highsmith.
The Heat surely will make big adjustments in Game 2 on Sunday.
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