Prior to Friday night’s tipoff against the visiting Denver Nuggets, Jimmy Butler got the fanbase into a brief frenzy. The Miami Heat star released a formal statement, issued by his agent Bernard Lee publicly, that implied the issues between Butler and the organization may have finally been over— “I’m back.”
Unfortunately for everyone involved, this vague (yet optimistic) statement was far from inclining that the feud between each party is over.
Instead, Butler appeared in his first game ‘back’ since he has served his team seven-game suspension. And the vibes were awkward and uncomfortable, to say the least. He somehow limped to an efficient 18 points and showed some stints of on-ball engagement with the Heat’s offense. Ultimately, he did just enough to get by to back up his claims that he came out all business-like to “hoop”.
Butler had just 3 rebounds and 2 assists, with the Heat being outscored by 11 points in his 33 total minutes alongside the rest of the starters.
As for everybody else who actually does want to play for Miami, Tyler Herro dropped a team-high 22 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists on 10 of 17 shooting. Bam Adebayo had a solid 16-point, 11-rebounds double-double. And Nikola Jovic contributed 16 points off the bench.
Duncan Robinson did a great job at getting his teammates involved as he made his return to the starting group, which benched the struggling Terry Rozier. Robinson especially got Adebayo involved early, setting him up with easy buckets to begin the game. He finished with a team-high 7 assists.
The Nuggets put on an offensive clinic, who showcased efficiency and great control of the basketball all night long. Denver shot a sizzling 54% from the field along with 48% from 3-point range. Their poise was displayed by limiting themselves to just five turnovers and 35 assists as a team.
The true disparity of the game came with the 3-point shooting. Miami struggled with 27% overall, hitting just 9 of their 33 attempts from deep.
Nuggets superstar and MVP candidate Nikola Jokic had his imprints all over this matchup early.
Nikola Jokic finished with an effortless, yet dominant 24/12/10 triple-double line while going 9 for 12 from the field.
The versatile big man was able to do so without playing a single minute in the fourth quarter. Denver’s depth still got the job done, outscoring the Heat 35-27 in the final period.
His co-star in Jamal Murray poured in a game-high 30 points for the Nuggets— along with 8 assists, 7 rebounds and 50% shooting. Their role players were impactful, and got 16 points out of Aaron Gordon to help lead them off the bench. Denver improved to 25-16 on the season as the Western Conference’s fourth seed.
Additionally, Miami is now 1-9 in their last 10 home games against the Nuggets, dating all the way back to 2018 as their last win against them.
Back to the Butler saga, his statement before the game wound up meaning nothing. Despite the excitement from the fanbase initially, his body language and efforts proved to be questionable once again. Top ESPN insider Shams Charania, along with Butler himself, confirmed postgame that nothing has changed in regard to his trade demands out of South Beach.
With no resolution seeming to come anytime soon, this Butler drama has the potential to give the Heat a lost season if not moved by the February 6 trade deadline. In result, Miami’s inconsistency both on and off the court with the disgruntled star around has led to losses.
Miami has dropped back to a mediocre 20-20 record on the season and in the midst of a three-game losing streak. They will fall into the NBA play-in structure once again as the East’s current ninth seed.
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Most upsetting loss of the season. SO sick of losing to the freaking nuggets. I can’t remember a loss like this in the past few seasons where I left completely doubting our roster this much. 1-14 is atrocious
The truth will come out? Hahaha! Sure, Jimmy. Here is the truth. You’ve been loafing through the regular season for a few years, you wanted more money, company said no based on several factors of which they have a right to decide. You were given perks that players twice as good as you didn’t have while on the Heat. Get out of here with that garbage.
I can’t wait to find out about this minute mystery.
Well, those Nuggets are just the team we cant beat.
It was obvious, that there was an agreement. Jimmy promised to play hard, Heat promised getting him more involved. He gets the ball more early.
What’s next?
Some more 50 % basketball, early PO exit, possibly some drama and a big ugly divorce at some point till summer.
At least we have young player playing big minutes now, so there is some joy in watching this team.