Jimmy Butler III has shocked everyone in the NBA world, with his playoff heroics this season. It was known previously that Butler is a player that flips a switch come playoff time but the level of dominance he has displayed these past few weeks is unprecedented. Butler has been able to carry an eighth-seeded team all the way to the NBA finals, with his starting five containing three undrafted players. If that isn’t one of the most impressive feats ever accomplished in NBA postseason history, nothing is.
The most impressive nuance of Butler’s team is that they aren’t even a true eight-seed. They finished seventh in the league however during the play-in tournament. They lost their first game to the Atalanta Hawks but still persevered to defeat the Chicago Bulls in the next game and retain the eighth-seed placement. It seems unlikely that a player of Butler’s caliber and tenacity would ever allow himself to be swept in a series but if it can happen to Butler’s supposed NBA father Michael Jordan, it can definitely happen to the son.
Jimmy Butler has only been swept from the playoffs once
That’s it. Just once. For a player who was drafted almost 12 years ago, it’s very formidable that Butler has only gone down once without putting up a fight. Butler has participated in the postseason 11 seasons out of his 12 seasons played. The only time Butler failed to make the playoffs completely, was in 2016 when he was with the Chicago Bulls. On a team where his second-best player was an injured Derrick Rose, it’s understandable that Butler (who was just in his fourth season) couldn’t carry his team to the promised land.
Coming to the one series in which he was swept, it was in 2021. The Miami Heat finished the season as the sixth-seed and were slated to play the three-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the eastern conference.
Game 1 was an incredibly close one, with the Bucks initially struggling offensively against the Heat, but the total talent of the Bucks team was enough to keep them in the fight. The game went to overtime thanks to a buzzer-beating layup by Jimmy Butler but unfortunately, his team fell at the final call due to a mind-boggling mid-range shot from Khris Middleton with 0.5 seconds left.
The Bucks dominated the Heat in Game 2 leading to a crushing 132-98 victory. The offensive acumen of Giannis Antetokounpo and the defensive mastery of Jrue Holiday was too much for the Heat to handle.
Game 3 was much of the same, with the Bucks easily taking care of the Heat in a 113-84 victory. In Games 2 and 3, the Heat only led for a paltry 17 seconds in 96 minutes of game time.
Finally, the Bucks put the Heat out of their misery in Game 4 with a 120-103 win. The Heat did build up a 7-point lead at halftime but it was quickly erased by the Bucks’ surefire 24-6 run in the third quarter. There cannot really be any excuses made on Butler’s part. The fact of the matter is that he was simply outmatched by a team far superior to his own. At least he’ll have consolation in the fact that they did go on to be champions, and he was able to get revenge in this year’s playoffs, sweeping the Bucks in a gentlemen-like manner.