With Miami’s season on the line, Jimmy Butler delivered a 35-point triple-double to lead the Heat to a 111-108 win to force a Game 6 and spoil a brilliant performance from LeBron James.
Let’s take a closer look at Miami’s season-saving win as we go inside the box score.
Traditional
Jimmy Butler has two career playoff triple-doubles – and both have come in this series in Miami’s two wins. On Friday, Butler finished with 35 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists as he became the second player to ever post multiple 30-point triple-doubles in the same Finals series. The other player: LeBron James in 2015.
Jimmy Butler is the first player in history to record at least 35 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists and 5 steals in an NBA Finals game. He is just the second player to reach those numbers in NBA playoffs history: Gary Payton 35 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists, and 6 steals in May 2000 (First Round).
LeBron James scored a game-high 40 points on 15-21 FG, 6-9 3P (including a desperation heave from half court at the buzzer) to go with 13 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals in the loss for L.A. The 40-point performance marked the third-highest scoring performance for LeBron in his 49 career elimination games. His career-best is 45 points, which he did twice – in a win over Indiana in 2018 and in a loss to Boston in 2008.
After Anthony Davis’ free throws with 6:51 to play pulled the Lakers within two points at 96-94, neither team had more than a one-possession lead for the remainder of the game. In this extended clutch time, Jimmy Butler had eight points on 2-3 FG, 4-4 FT, while LeBron James had seven points on 2-5 FG, 0-1 3P and 3-3 FT.
Duncan Robinson scored 26 points for the Heat, which not only set a career playoff-high for Robinson, but marked the fourth-highest scoring game of his two-year career.
Duncan Robinson made seven 3-pointers in Game 5, setting a new record for 3-pointers made by an undrafted player in an NBA Finals game. The previous mark was six treys by Gary Neal in 2013.
Anthony Davis shot 8-8 from the free throw line in Game 5, brining his series total to a perfect 25-25 in The Finals.
Jimmy Butler shot a perfect 12-12 from the free throw line, including four clutch free throws in the final minute to give the Heat the lead twice. Butler shot 83.4 from the free throw line during the regular season, and 84.8% in the first three rounds of the playoffs prior to the Finals. He is shooting 92% (46-50) through the first five games of The Finals.
The Heat (6) had twice as many double-figure scores than the Lakers (3) in Game 5. The Heat have seven players that have appeared in at least three games of this series and averaged over 10 points per game, including five that have played all five games. The Lakers have three such players in the series.
Miami’s 14 3-pointers made and 42.4% 3-point percentage were their highest marks of the series. Duncan Robinson accounted for half of Miami’s threes, while Jae Crowder, Tyler Herro and Kendrick Nunn made two apiece.
The Heat shortened their rotation to seven players in Game 5, the fewest they have played in the series. Jimmy Butler played all but 48 seconds of the game (47:12), while Anthony Davis (42:13) and LeBron James (41:51) were the only other players to reach 40 minutes played.
Both teams shot nearly identical percentages from the field as the Heat finished with one more shot attempt (38-83) and more more miss than the Lakers (38-82). Both teams made 14 3-pointers apiece, with the Heat getting theirs on five fewer attempts.
The Heat edged out the Lakers 25-24 in the first quarter, continuing the trend that the winner of the first quarter has gone on to win the game in every game in this Finals.
Tyler Herro recorded his 20th consecutive postseason game with 10+ points on Friday, the most in NBA Playoff history for a rookie. The only other players with 20 straight double-digit scoring games in this year’s playoffs are LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
LeBron James tied Derek Fisher for the most games played in NBA Playoffs history with 259. With Miami’s win, he will surpass Fisher for first place on Sunday.
Advanced
Miami’s offensive rebound percentage has climbed in each game of The Finals as they posted a series high 26.7% in Game 5.
Among the 28 instances in this series where a player played at least 20 minutes and posted a usage rate of at least 20%, LeBron James (84.6%) and Duncan Robinson (79.7%) posted the top two true shooting percentages in Game 5. Anthony Davis and Jimmy Butler are sixth and seventh on that list with their Game 5 performances.
The Heat posted their best offensive rating (123.3) and worst defensive rating (131.0) in the 30:37 that Tyler Herro was on the court in Game 5. Herro was the only Heat player with a negative net rating (-7.7) on Friday.
The Lakers outscored the Heat by 29.6 points per 100 possessions in Danny Green’s 24 minutes in Game 5. However, he missed the potential game-winning 3-pointer in the closing seconds of the game.
Rajon Rondo and Kyle Kuzma were the only Lakers to post a pace over 100 in Game 5, and both finished with the lowest net ratings of the game at minus-40.9 and minus-39.0, respectively.
Miscellaneous
Miami’s 15 second-chance points were its highest total of the series. In each of their two wins in this series, the Heat lost the second-chance points battle by just one point. In their three losses, the Heat have lost second-chance points by a total of 19 points.
The Lakers’ 25 fast break points matched their top mark of the 2020 playoffs (Game 4 vs. Portland, First Round) as L.A. outscored Miami 25-4 on fast breaks. LeBron James and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope led the way with seven fast break points each.
In Miami’s two wins they have scored more points off turnovers than the Lakers, including a 20-14 margin in Game 5. The Lakers are also 2-0 in the series when scoring the most points off turnovers, and L.A. also has the win in Game 2 when the teams tied in the category.
Game 5 featured a series-high 15 lead changes as that mark has increased steadily throughout the series: three in Game 1, four in Game 2, seven in Game 3, nine in Game 4 and now 15 in Game 5.
Scoring
Duncan Robinson scored 80.8% of his points on 3-point shots as he finished 7-13 from beyond the arc, accounting for 21 of his 26 points. While that is Robinson’s highest percentage for The Finals, it ranks ninth in the postseason.
The Heat assisted on 92.9% of their 3-pointers made in Game 5, compared to 71.4% for the Lakers. The Heat’s performance is on par with their league-leading 91.1% rate for the playoffs, while the Lakers’ mark in Game 5 is much lower than their fourth-ranked 84.0% rate for the playoffs.
The Lakers scored 38.9 of their points in the paint in Game 5. It marked the fourth time in these Finals that the Lakers have scored fewer than 40% of its points in the paint. During the regular season, the Lakers ranked second in percentage of points in the paint (46.5%). In the playoffs prior to the Finals, the Lakers led all teams at 43.5%. In the Finals, that mark has dropped to 36.8%.
The Heat scored 37.8% of its points from 3-point range in Game 5; their top mark of the series. In the playoffs, the Heat are 6-1 when 3-pointers account for at least 35% of their points. They went 28-12 in such games during the regular season.
Free throws accounted for the highest percentage of Jimmy Butler’s points in Game 5 at 34.3%. He scored an even 28.6% of his points in the mid-range and inside the paint, with only 8.6% coming on 3-pointers as he shot 1-3 from beyond the arc. The Heat are 12-2 in the playoffs when at least 30% of Butler’s points come on free throws; they are 2-4 when that mark is under 30%, including two Finals losses.
Usage
After Anthony Davis’ free throws with 6:51 to play pulled the Lakers within two points at 96-94, neither team had more than a one-possession lead for the remainder of the game. In this extended clutch time, Jimmy Butler had a usage rate of 47.5% and scored 53.3% of Miami’s points and dished out 33.3% of Miami’s assists. LeBron James had a 31.1% usage rate as he scored 50% of L.A.’s points and dished out 50% of L.A.’s assists.
Duncan Robinson accounted for 56.5% of Miami’s 3-point attempts and 70% of Miami’s 3-pointers made while he was on the court.
Four Factors
The teams were nearly even in two of the four factors – effective field goal percentage (54.9% for L.A., 54.2% for Miami) and free throw rate (0.265 for Miami, 0.256 for L.A.). The key differences came in turnover ratio, which favored Miami 13.4 to 15.9; as well as offensive rebound rate, which favored L.A. 33.3% to 20.0%.
Despite the large deficit in offensive rebounding, the Heat kept the second-chance points battle close, allowing just six second-chance points to the Lakers, while scoring five of their own.
Hustle
In addition to his game-high 11 traditional assists, Jimmy Butler also tallied three screen assists in Game 5, which helped produce seven Heat points. Butler’s screen assist total matched the Lakers’ team total.
The Heat held a huge advantage in deflections in Game 5 with 17 compared to 8 for the Lakers. Jimmy Butler had a game-high five deflections and also had a game-high five steals.
The Heat finished with an 18-13 advantage in box outs with Bam Adebayo and Dwight Howard leading their respective teams with four apiece. While the Lakers won the rebound battle 41-35 in Game 5, the Heat kept it close enough that it did not hurt them significantly. In their two wins, the Heat have a rebound percentage of 46.9%; in their two losses, it drops to 42.9%.
