Jimmy Butler put in a superman performance as the Miami Heat shocked the Lakers and NBA fans worldwide by cruising to a 115-104 win against the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night.
The win also cut the Lakers’ series lead to 2-1 as Jimmy Butler put in elite performance, notching a triple-double with 40 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists.
The Heat were more aggressive from the start as Butler sets the tone early by dominating both ends of the floor, while Miami’s role players stepped up to keep themselves in the lead for most of the game in the absence of Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic.
Anthony Davis had a woeful game (15 points, five rebounds) after getting off to an awful start with early foul troubles. He also committed several turnovers, but he got things going with 10 points in the third quarter.
LeBron James, however, put in an efficient performance in a 25 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists on a 9-for-16 shooting display, but committed a couple of travelling violations late in the fourth while the Lakers were attempting to make one final comeback.
But can the Heat even the series in Game 4 on Tuesday?
Watch Game 3 highlights below
Butler joins the elite squad
Jimmy Butler did spectacularly well to put himself in the exclusive company of LeBron James and Jerry West, as the only players to notch a 40-point triple-double in the Finals (Butler is the only player to do it in a win), and the Heat needed every point, rebound and assist to pull off the upset.
Butler also became the only player to ever outscore, out-rebound, and out-assist LeBron in an NBA Finals game.
“Look, how do you — how else do you say it other than Jimmy effing Butler,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra says after the game.
“But this is what he wanted, this is what we wanted. It’s really hard to analyse or describe Jimmy until you actually feel him between the four lines. He’s a supreme, elite competitor and we needed it.”
LeBron James shows his displeasure
James walked out on the game with 10 seconds left as he showed his displeasure with his team’s performance in Game 3. The Lakers got the ball back after a shot clock violation with 0.7 seconds left in the game, and LeBron was nowhere to be found.
It turns out he had already begun his walk back to the locker room, and the Lakers had to enlist Jared Dudley from the bench to ensure they had five players on the court to finish the game.
He, however, didn’t seem to be directing his frustration to his teammates as he admonished himself after the game for the eight turnovers he committed.
“It starts with myself, being the starting point guard of the team, having five first-half turnovers, eight total for the game,” James says.
“Can’t do that, obviously, because it gives them more possessions and doesn’t allow us to set our defense. They are really, really good offensively, so you just can’t turn the ball over against that team. I take full responsibility for that.”
Anthony Davis had a torrid outing
Anthony Davis who’s been in the conversation recently for Finals MVP candidacy put up one of the worst playoff performances of his career.
Davis scored zero points, committed four turnovers, and was a minus 13 before he went to the bench with his second foul while playing seven minutes in the first quarter. After halftime, Davis got things going a bit scoring 10 points in the third, but went scoreless and only took one shot in the fourth quarter.
“I think the foul trouble made him a little passive because he wanted to be out on the floor but he couldn’t be his aggressive self offensively and defensively,” James says of Davis after the game.
“I think the fouls slowed him down a lot tonight.”
The foul trouble was surely an issue, but even when Davis was playing he seemed out of rhythm, turning the ball over and looking hesitant. Credit to the Heat defence, which varied its looks on Davis early to force turnovers and generally bad possessions.
No Davis at the part, no party