MIAMI – Playoff Jimmy is playing.
Miami’s Jimmy Butler was listed as available on the latest injury report for Saturday’s second-round Game 3 against the Knicks.
He had missed Game 2 in the Garden with a sprained right ankle suffered with five minutes left in the Heat’s Game 1 victory.
The Heat had officially listed Butler as questionable on Friday afternoon’s injury report, but Butler was upgraded to available roughly an hour before tipoff Saturday.
“Jimmy’s a different character. So I feel like the will of him is he’s not going to tell you exactly how he feels. For us, he said he feels good: We go with that,” said Miami center Bam Adebayo.
“Just by how he handles certain injuries, I feel like he’s a warrior in that aspect, because he won’t tell you how he truly feels. I feel like he just has that will to win. So he’ll just go out there 50 percent or 60 percent and he’ll tell you he’s fine.”
Butler sprained his ankle with five minutes left in Game 1 at the Garden while driving when Knick guard Josh Hart slipped into Butler’s foot and it rolled over.
He gutted out the rest of that tilt, finishing with 25 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and two steals.
During the regular-season, Butler averaged 22.9 points, 5.9 rebounds and 5.3 assists in 64 games for Miami.
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He’s been far more dominant so far in the postseason, living up to his Playoff Jimmy reputation, boosting those averages to 35.5 points, 6.8 boards and 4.7 assists in a half-dozen appearances, showing a complete offensive game.
Now the Knicks will have to contend with him again in Game 3.
“I think that’s what makes him so tough, is it’s so many different things whether it’s handling in a pick-and-roll, screening in a pick-and-roll, running the offense. Getting to the free throw line. Post up. Shot creation and having an awareness of what’s going on in the game,” said Knick coach Tom Thibodeau, who coached Butler in Chicago.
“Those have always been his strengths. Body position. He’s clever with the ball. So you try to make a guy like that work as much as much as you can for his points but it’s a lot more than just points. That’s the test that we face.”