The Bucks were missing their MVP, Giannis Antetokounmpo, whose sprained right ankle kept him out of what turned out to be the final game for the team with the best regular season record in the league in each of the past two seasons.
But the Heat had theirs in Butler, who has led the franchise to its first conference finals since 2014, when LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were finishing up a wild run of four straight trips to The Finals, including championships in 2012 and 2013.
And he doesn’t think this team has come close to playing its best yet.
“I don’t think so,” Butler said. “I don’t think we’ve played a full 48-minute game yet. And that’s what’s promising, is that if we do lock in and play from start to finish the way that we’re capable of, the way we’re supposed to, I think the game will be a lot easier. It’s yet to happen, but we got to have it happen in the next round.”
Those “Heatles” title teams rode the wave of their superstar trio to the top of the NBA mountain. This Butler-led Heat team is in this position, a league-best 8-1 in the postseason including a sweep of the Indiana Pacers in the first round, because their superstar trusted the culture and the process.
Butler also trusted his teammates. That includes veterans like Goran Dragic and Kelly Olynyk, who were already in Miami and played big minutes in the close out of the Bucks, and trade deadline additions Jae Crowder and three-time champion Andre Iguodala, both of whom delivered handsomely on all that experience Tuesday. They also got important contributions from youngsters Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro.
Spoelstra knows how tough it is to get here, how special it is, particularly with a team that’s had to endure the things this group has in its first year together while dealing with the shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, the four-month layoff and restart and the rigors of an unprecedented playoffs in this bubble.
“It’s not easy to get to the conference finals and our organization knows that,” he said. “We’ve been trying desperately to get back to the conference finals. That’s not our ultimate goal, we get it. But you could still acknowledge the journey, how hard it is to get to this point. That is why we brought Jimmy Butler here, that is why we put this team together with the veterans, adding Andre and Jae, building around Goran and Bam and adding to the young core.
“So it’s not easy to get to the conference finals, otherwise every team would be doing it. And we’ve been at this for 25 years under the Riley-Arison leadership. We’ve tried every single year just to get to this level and it just shows you how competitive this league is. It doesn’t happen every year and we don’t take it for granted. We’re grateful for the opportunity we’ve had.”
What looked like a motley crew to the outside world when training camp began looked like the perfect situation to Butler after stops in Minnesota and Philadelphia in the two previous seasons simply did not agree with his sensibilities about the game.
Butler was searching for a like-minded group of players, ones who compete with a chip on their shoulder, ones who were maybe overlooked and counted out or disregarded altogether. He was looking for players like, well … Jimmy Butler.
He was searching for guys like Crowder (16 points in Game 5) and Adebayo (13), Dragic (17) and Herro (14 off the bench, with several huge baskets down the stretch), guys young and old(er), guys who would chase greatness the way he would. And they did, running down the Bucks after falling behind by 13 points in the first quarter with a furious 30-9 rally of their own to regain control.
“I just came in with a killer mindset,” Herro said. “I wanted to leave everything on the floor for my coaches and teammates. This was one game we needed, we needed one game to move to the next round and I just tried to bring everything I could and leave it out there on the floor. It was ugly but we got the win and that’s all that mattered.”
So no, Butler’s not surprised that his team is still playing, that they will celebrate this accomplishment, at last for a night or two according to Spoelstra, before locking in on the next step.
“It felt good at the end to obviously win it,” Herro said. “We’re going to enjoy this tonight and maybe tomorrow a little bit. But then we’ll get back to work, because we’ve still got some unfinished business.”
They’re off to the best start for a team seeded fifth or lower since the playoffs were expanded in 1984. That’s news that might even surprise Butler, who is finally getting his first taste of the conference finals, but probably not.
In fact, he probably won’t care. Because in his eyes, the Heat are still only halfway to the ultimate goal.
“This means a lot,” Butler said. “But that’s not my goal, that’s not my guys’ goal, that’s not the organization’s goal. We want to win it. We want a championship. And that’s what we’re focused on. These next eight [wins] are going to be much harder than the previous eight. We know that. But we’re ready for it.”
