The Miami Heat are in need of "Playoff Jimmy" in the regular season.
They need the Jimmy Butler hunched over the railing during the 2020 NBA Finals. They need the Jimmy Butler from last year's playoffs.
They need every ounce of Butler if they are going to finish this season strong and avoid the play-in tournament. Let's face it. The Heat are reeling.
The only player who can get them through this is Butler, the postseason Butler. With 18 games remaining, the Heat are 2.5 games back of the sixth-seeded Brooklyn Nets. They are also just two games ahead of the Washington Wizards, who hold the final spot in the play-in tournament.
The Heat never expected this predicament, especially after earning the No. 1 seed last year. Especially after the midseason acquisitions of Kevin Love and Cody Zeller.
Yet here they are fighting for their postseason lives in March. It all comes down to Butler and it starts today against the Atlanta Hawks. The Heat have consecutive games against the Hawks and then two versus the Cleveland Cavaliers.
In all, the Heat have 10 games remaining against teams in the playoff picture. The positive is this: Butler is up for challenge.
"Lead by example, go out there and play hard, continue to play the right way," Butler said. "Do everything that [coach Erik Spoelstra] asks of me to do because then I feel like everybody has to follow suit. Play winning basketball and know that the wins are coming. At the end of the day, we're going to win together, we're gonna lose together. If we happen to tie, we're going to do that together as well."
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