During a recent press conference at French Open, tennis player and big Heat fan Coco Gauff revealed that Butler told her Miami would play in NBA Finals even before the postseason started. He even offered Gauff tickets to attend one of the championship games. 

According to Gauff, Butler reached out in April and invited her to be his guest for the final game of the regular season. Gauff had to decline due to a scheduled tournament appearance, after which the Heat star returned with another offer.

“Then he said, ‘OK when we make the Finals, let me know if your family wants some tickets.’ So this was before we were even in the playoffs,” Gauff shared.

“So that’s my ‘Jimmy Butler story.’ He pretty much said we were going to the Finals before we even qualified for the playoffs, and I just really like that mentality,” she added.

It turns out that Jimmy Buttler really spoke Miami Heat’s road to NBA Finals into existence. After barely making the playoffs, the Heat went on to beat the favored Milwaukee Bucks, the New York Knicks, and the Boston Celtics to come out of the East. They have scheduled a showdown against the Denver Nuggets and a chance to win the fourth NBA title in franchise history.

The post Jimmy Butler Told Coco Gauff the Heat Will Be in NBA Finals Before Playoffs Started appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

Jimmy Butler proved to be a standout player on the night, scoring 42 points to secure a 128-126 overtime win for Miami in Game 5 of the first-round series. This comes after the small forward scored a colossal 56 points in Game 4.

Miami proved to be on the back foot for much of the game, and while the team managed to control more of the ball than it did in Game 4, the team had to claw their way back from a 22-6 deficit in the fourth quarter.

The Heat is set to face the New York Knicks in the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. Game 1 takes place on Sunday at Madison Square Garden.

The post Miami Heat Sends Milwaukee Bucks Crashing Out of NBA Playoffs appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

“We’d have to stay confident,” Butler explained, further emphasizing his confidence in the team’s ability to turn things around. “We have to know we are capable of winning, if we start out the right way and if we rebound obviously. But it’s just, I don’t know, shots don’t go in, we foul — that’s never the recipe for success with us. So come Friday, we’ve got to play, like, legit the exact opposite that we played tonight.”

By losing Tuesday night’s game, the Heat has become the first seventh-placed team to lose in the five-year history of the play-in tournament. They still have an opportunity to advance to the playoffs by defeating the winners of the Raptors-Bulls game.

The post Butler Expresses Frustration Following Heat’s Play-In Loss appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

According to Ethan Skolnick, host of the Miami Heat-focused podcast Five On The Floor, Butler was offered the spot after Kevin Durant was ruled out of the 2021 All-Star game due to a hamstring injury. But the 31-year-old veteran made it clear to Commissioner Adam Silver that he wouldn’t take the invite as he didn’t want to go without his teammate Bam Adebayo.

Butler and Adebayo played together in last year’s All-Star game but failed to make the cut this year.

Silver then proceeded to name Indiana Pacers forward Domantas Sabonis Durant’s official replacement late last week.

It wasn’t a surprise that Jimmy Butler didn’t get the All-Star nod from fans or NBA head coaches this time around. Although he has enjoyed another productive campaign, averaging 20.1 points while posting career-highs in rebounds (7.8) and assists (7.8), Butler also missed 13 games.

Another thing that didn’t work in Butler’s favor are the Heat’s struggles early in the season. Since reaching the NBA Finals in the previous playoffs, Miami has had issues with form and were even at one point out of the playoff spot in Eastern Conference.

The post Jimmy Butler Reportedly Rejected the 2021 NBA All-Star Game Invitation appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

The first disputed incident occurred when there were 46.7 seconds left on the clock. In this instance, Markieff Morris was charged with hitting Miami’s Jimmy Butler’s arm, causing the Heat star to miss his shot and bump into a video board behind the baseline. Following this foul, Butler converted both of his free throws.

The second disputed play, which occurred with 16.8 seconds left on the clock, saw Anthony Davis penalized for jumping into Jimmy Butler and consequently initiating contact. This yet again resulted in the Heat receiving a pair of free throws, both of which Butler scored.

Intriguingly, there were two other calls that the NBA did find the referees to be guilty of missing, however, both of which should have been awarded in favor of the Lakers. Ultimately, neither of these calls made much difference, as the Miami Heat put just enough daylight between themselves and the Lakers to hold on for an agonizingly close 108-111 victory.

The post NBA Dismisses Lakers’ Complaints Regarding Game 5 Refereeing Decisions appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

While Game One of last year’s NBA Finals drew in a television audience of 13.4 million people, Game One of this year’s Finals had just 7.41 million viewers, according to the Sports Watch Media website and Yahoo! Sports. Game Two of the 2020 NBA Finals drew in 5.94 million viewers, paling in comparison to last year’s audience of 6.61 million people.

While there are several popular opinions surrounding the possible reasons for this decline in viewership, most industry experts attribute the latest decline in television ratings to the schedule disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Game One of this year’s NBA Finals clashed with Major League Baseball playoff games involving the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers, while Game Three overlapped with the NFL’s traditional “Sunday Night Football”.

“Going up head-to-head with the NFL and MLB post-season is a first, and the competition has had a negative effect on audience delivery,” media consultant Brad Adgate explained.

Former Fox Sports executive Patrick Crakes agreed with this statement, explaining, “It represents a highly fractionalized environment that is atypical for the NBA to air their finals in, against some pretty steep competition.”

The post NBA Television Ratings Hurt by Pandemic Reshuffle, Experts Say appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

While it was Jimmy Butler who rose from the ashes to produce an MVP-worthy 73-point (points + assists) contribution to Heat’s Game 3 win, Herro also played a pivotal role in the victory, scoring 17 points of his own and capping off his performance with a fine three-pointer.

The up-and-coming guard first burst generated a media frenzy in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals, when his career-high 37-point frenzy elevated the Heat to a 112-109 victory over the Boston Celtics. This resulted in Herro having the second-highest number of points in a playoff game for someone aged 20 or younger, behind Magic Johnson.

From there, he gained the confidence to score 11 points in the fourth quarter of Game 6 against the Celtics, thus securing the Heat’s spot in this year’s NBA Finals.

When asked about his in-game mentality, Herro had the following to say, “My confidence is just, that’s just who I am. You can’t survive in this league if you don’t have confidence.”

The post Miami Heat’s Tyler Herro Confident Ahead of Game 4 Clash appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

Butler has become only the third player in history to have 40+ point triple-double in the NBA Finals, after Jerry West in 1969 and Lakers rival LeBron James in 2015.

Prior to the start of the game, pundits expected Jimmy Butler’s job on the night to be incredibly challenging, particularly since both Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic were ruled out of the game through injury. Ultimately, Butler shocked onlookers with his consistently stellar performance throughout the clash.

Butler performed admirably from both a defensive and offensive position. He shot 14-for-20 (70%) and 12-for-14 (85.7%) from the line, while also managing to make two blocks and execute two steals. Including both points and assists, Butler had a hand in 73 of the Heat’s 115 points.

In addition to his aforementioned accomplishment, Butler also became the first player ever to out-score, out-assist, and out-rebound LeBron James in a Finals game.

Following their Game 3 victory, the heat will come up against the LA Lakers once again in Game 4 on Wednesday.

The post Jimmy Butler Makes NBA Finals History appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

Looking ahead at Game 3 on Wednesday, Butler had the following to say, “Maybe we have just got to play a lot harder, to know that is how we are going to squeak out a win in the end. There really isn’t too much to say to our guys. We understand what we have to do.”

Despite his team’s lackluster performance on the night, Butler himself had a standout game, scoring 25 points and racking up 8 rebounds and 13 assists.

The Heat’s one positive takeaway from the match was their performance during the third period, when they scored a grandiose 39 points to cut a 14-point deficit down to just ten points.

“Look, I love these guys. I love the way we compete,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra explained. “We have to figure out how to overcome this and get over the top.”

Prior to their series with the Lakers, Heat enjoyed resounding victories in each of their playoff games leading up to the finals. They secured a 4-0 series victory over the Indiana Pacers, before wrapping up 4-1 victories over the Milwaukee Bucks and then the Boston Celtics.

The post Heat Needs to Play Harder in Game 3 Against Lakers, Butler Explains appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

During his recent interview on ESPN’s The Jump, 76ers’ star center Joel Embiid talked about Butler’s time with the organization and how sad he was to see him snub Philly and sign with Miami Heat in the offseason. According to Embiid, the two developed a strong bond and he wishes Butler remained on the team.

“It was a big loss because me and him, we got to the point where we were really close – we’re still close. We talk a lot, that’s my guy, that’s my brother forever. I wish he was still on the team, because I feel like the relationship that I built with him could have gone a long way.” – Embiid told The Jump’s Rachel Nichols.

“When it was the fourth quarter, we knew the ball would either be in me or Jimmy’s hands. I knew I could count on him. This year it kind of changes around. Now other guys have to step up and I have to do more.” – he added.

It seems like Jimmy Butler managed to connect with Philadelphia 76ers’ young players, who embraces his leadership and grinding attitude in a short amount of time. This is the total opposite of Butler’s time with Minnesota Timberwolves, where he often clashed with Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns, who were not fans of his hard-working etiquette.

Butler averaged 19.8 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 2.1 steals per game last season, appearing in 10 games with Timberwolves and 55 with 76ers.

The post 76ers’ Joel Embiid on Jimmy Butler: “I Wish He Was Still On the Team” appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

During a recent press conference at French Open, tennis player and big Heat fan Coco Gauff revealed that Butler told her Miami would play in NBA Finals even before the postseason started. He even offered Gauff tickets to attend one of the championship games. 

According to Gauff, Butler reached out in April and invited her to be his guest for the final game of the regular season. Gauff had to decline due to a scheduled tournament appearance, after which the Heat star returned with another offer.

“Then he said, ‘OK when we make the Finals, let me know if your family wants some tickets.’ So this was before we were even in the playoffs,” Gauff shared.

“So that’s my ‘Jimmy Butler story.’ He pretty much said we were going to the Finals before we even qualified for the playoffs, and I just really like that mentality,” she added.

It turns out that Jimmy Buttler really spoke Miami Heat’s road to NBA Finals into existence. After barely making the playoffs, the Heat went on to beat the favored Milwaukee Bucks, the New York Knicks, and the Boston Celtics to come out of the East. They have scheduled a showdown against the Denver Nuggets and a chance to win the fourth NBA title in franchise history.

The post Jimmy Butler Told Coco Gauff the Heat Will Be in NBA Finals Before Playoffs Started appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

Jimmy Butler proved to be a standout player on the night, scoring 42 points to secure a 128-126 overtime win for Miami in Game 5 of the first-round series. This comes after the small forward scored a colossal 56 points in Game 4.

Miami proved to be on the back foot for much of the game, and while the team managed to control more of the ball than it did in Game 4, the team had to claw their way back from a 22-6 deficit in the fourth quarter.

The Heat is set to face the New York Knicks in the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. Game 1 takes place on Sunday at Madison Square Garden.

The post Miami Heat Sends Milwaukee Bucks Crashing Out of NBA Playoffs appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

“We’d have to stay confident,” Butler explained, further emphasizing his confidence in the team’s ability to turn things around. “We have to know we are capable of winning, if we start out the right way and if we rebound obviously. But it’s just, I don’t know, shots don’t go in, we foul — that’s never the recipe for success with us. So come Friday, we’ve got to play, like, legit the exact opposite that we played tonight.”

By losing Tuesday night’s game, the Heat has become the first seventh-placed team to lose in the five-year history of the play-in tournament. They still have an opportunity to advance to the playoffs by defeating the winners of the Raptors-Bulls game.

The post Butler Expresses Frustration Following Heat’s Play-In Loss appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

According to Ethan Skolnick, host of the Miami Heat-focused podcast Five On The Floor, Butler was offered the spot after Kevin Durant was ruled out of the 2021 All-Star game due to a hamstring injury. But the 31-year-old veteran made it clear to Commissioner Adam Silver that he wouldn’t take the invite as he didn’t want to go without his teammate Bam Adebayo.

Butler and Adebayo played together in last year’s All-Star game but failed to make the cut this year.

Silver then proceeded to name Indiana Pacers forward Domantas Sabonis Durant’s official replacement late last week.

It wasn’t a surprise that Jimmy Butler didn’t get the All-Star nod from fans or NBA head coaches this time around. Although he has enjoyed another productive campaign, averaging 20.1 points while posting career-highs in rebounds (7.8) and assists (7.8), Butler also missed 13 games.

Another thing that didn’t work in Butler’s favor are the Heat’s struggles early in the season. Since reaching the NBA Finals in the previous playoffs, Miami has had issues with form and were even at one point out of the playoff spot in Eastern Conference.

The post Jimmy Butler Reportedly Rejected the 2021 NBA All-Star Game Invitation appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

The first disputed incident occurred when there were 46.7 seconds left on the clock. In this instance, Markieff Morris was charged with hitting Miami’s Jimmy Butler’s arm, causing the Heat star to miss his shot and bump into a video board behind the baseline. Following this foul, Butler converted both of his free throws.

The second disputed play, which occurred with 16.8 seconds left on the clock, saw Anthony Davis penalized for jumping into Jimmy Butler and consequently initiating contact. This yet again resulted in the Heat receiving a pair of free throws, both of which Butler scored.

Intriguingly, there were two other calls that the NBA did find the referees to be guilty of missing, however, both of which should have been awarded in favor of the Lakers. Ultimately, neither of these calls made much difference, as the Miami Heat put just enough daylight between themselves and the Lakers to hold on for an agonizingly close 108-111 victory.

The post NBA Dismisses Lakers’ Complaints Regarding Game 5 Refereeing Decisions appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

While Game One of last year’s NBA Finals drew in a television audience of 13.4 million people, Game One of this year’s Finals had just 7.41 million viewers, according to the Sports Watch Media website and Yahoo! Sports. Game Two of the 2020 NBA Finals drew in 5.94 million viewers, paling in comparison to last year’s audience of 6.61 million people.

While there are several popular opinions surrounding the possible reasons for this decline in viewership, most industry experts attribute the latest decline in television ratings to the schedule disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Game One of this year’s NBA Finals clashed with Major League Baseball playoff games involving the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers, while Game Three overlapped with the NFL’s traditional “Sunday Night Football”.

“Going up head-to-head with the NFL and MLB post-season is a first, and the competition has had a negative effect on audience delivery,” media consultant Brad Adgate explained.

Former Fox Sports executive Patrick Crakes agreed with this statement, explaining, “It represents a highly fractionalized environment that is atypical for the NBA to air their finals in, against some pretty steep competition.”

The post NBA Television Ratings Hurt by Pandemic Reshuffle, Experts Say appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

While it was Jimmy Butler who rose from the ashes to produce an MVP-worthy 73-point (points + assists) contribution to Heat’s Game 3 win, Herro also played a pivotal role in the victory, scoring 17 points of his own and capping off his performance with a fine three-pointer.

The up-and-coming guard first burst generated a media frenzy in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals, when his career-high 37-point frenzy elevated the Heat to a 112-109 victory over the Boston Celtics. This resulted in Herro having the second-highest number of points in a playoff game for someone aged 20 or younger, behind Magic Johnson.

From there, he gained the confidence to score 11 points in the fourth quarter of Game 6 against the Celtics, thus securing the Heat’s spot in this year’s NBA Finals.

When asked about his in-game mentality, Herro had the following to say, “My confidence is just, that’s just who I am. You can’t survive in this league if you don’t have confidence.”

The post Miami Heat’s Tyler Herro Confident Ahead of Game 4 Clash appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

Butler has become only the third player in history to have 40+ point triple-double in the NBA Finals, after Jerry West in 1969 and Lakers rival LeBron James in 2015.

Prior to the start of the game, pundits expected Jimmy Butler’s job on the night to be incredibly challenging, particularly since both Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic were ruled out of the game through injury. Ultimately, Butler shocked onlookers with his consistently stellar performance throughout the clash.

Butler performed admirably from both a defensive and offensive position. He shot 14-for-20 (70%) and 12-for-14 (85.7%) from the line, while also managing to make two blocks and execute two steals. Including both points and assists, Butler had a hand in 73 of the Heat’s 115 points.

In addition to his aforementioned accomplishment, Butler also became the first player ever to out-score, out-assist, and out-rebound LeBron James in a Finals game.

Following their Game 3 victory, the heat will come up against the LA Lakers once again in Game 4 on Wednesday.

The post Jimmy Butler Makes NBA Finals History appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

Looking ahead at Game 3 on Wednesday, Butler had the following to say, “Maybe we have just got to play a lot harder, to know that is how we are going to squeak out a win in the end. There really isn’t too much to say to our guys. We understand what we have to do.”

Despite his team’s lackluster performance on the night, Butler himself had a standout game, scoring 25 points and racking up 8 rebounds and 13 assists.

The Heat’s one positive takeaway from the match was their performance during the third period, when they scored a grandiose 39 points to cut a 14-point deficit down to just ten points.

“Look, I love these guys. I love the way we compete,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra explained. “We have to figure out how to overcome this and get over the top.”

Prior to their series with the Lakers, Heat enjoyed resounding victories in each of their playoff games leading up to the finals. They secured a 4-0 series victory over the Indiana Pacers, before wrapping up 4-1 victories over the Milwaukee Bucks and then the Boston Celtics.

The post Heat Needs to Play Harder in Game 3 Against Lakers, Butler Explains appeared first on yoursportspot.com.

During his recent interview on ESPN’s The Jump, 76ers’ star center Joel Embiid talked about Butler’s time with the organization and how sad he was to see him snub Philly and sign with Miami Heat in the offseason. According to Embiid, the two developed a strong bond and he wishes Butler remained on the team.

“It was a big loss because me and him, we got to the point where we were really close – we’re still close. We talk a lot, that’s my guy, that’s my brother forever. I wish he was still on the team, because I feel like the relationship that I built with him could have gone a long way.” – Embiid told The Jump’s Rachel Nichols.

“When it was the fourth quarter, we knew the ball would either be in me or Jimmy’s hands. I knew I could count on him. This year it kind of changes around. Now other guys have to step up and I have to do more.” – he added.

It seems like Jimmy Butler managed to connect with Philadelphia 76ers’ young players, who embraces his leadership and grinding attitude in a short amount of time. This is the total opposite of Butler’s time with Minnesota Timberwolves, where he often clashed with Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns, who were not fans of his hard-working etiquette.

Butler averaged 19.8 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 2.1 steals per game last season, appearing in 10 games with Timberwolves and 55 with 76ers.

The post 76ers’ Joel Embiid on Jimmy Butler: “I Wish He Was Still On the Team” appeared first on yoursportspot.com.