Chicago Bulls: Jimmy Butler joins elite NBA Finals company with MJ
Former Chicago Bulls guards/wings Jimmy Butler and Michael Jordan have joined each other in the same company in one lofty NBA Finals stat.
Although it doesn’t look like the five-seed Miami Heat and star shooting guard/small forward Jimmy Butler have much of a chance to comeback against LeBron James and the top-seeded Los Angeles Lakers at this point of the NBA Finals series, it’s not completely over yet. But the play of Butler was really special to date, including one set of numbers in the Finals that only the Chicago Bulls all-time great shooting guard Michael Jordan has registered previously in his career.
Apparently “Jimmy G. Buckets” is the only NBA player in the league’s history other than Jordan to average at least 25.0 points per game and 10.0 assists in the first four Finals appearances of their career. Jordan averaged an insane 31.5 points per game and 11.8 assists over the course of his first four NBA Finals appearances.
And Butler averaged 27.5 points per game and 10.0 assists in the first four games of this NBA Finals series for the Heat, taking on the Lakers.
The efforts from Butler so far are nearly all for naught. Outside of that massive triple-double he had with 40 points in Game 3, his heroic efforts haven’t resulted in anymore than one win for the Heat. After their tough Oct. 7 loss by the final score of 102-96, the Heat are one game away from elimination.
And LeBron is just one win away from getting the fourth NBA Championship of his career. There is a lot on the line in Game 5 for sure.
It is a shame that Butler is having to do so much for the Heat. With first-time All-Star selection and standout center Bam Adebayo dealing with an upper-body injury, the other part of the Heat’s star duo with Butler hasn’t played much at all in this NBA Finals series.
Butler was really good for the Heat so far in their playoff run. Despite only winning one of the first four games of the Finals series against the Lakers, he’s definitely doing all that he can to push the Heat as far as they can go.
Next. 3 possible James Harden trades with the Rockets. dark
Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Heat and Lakers is set to tip off on Oct. 9 at 8 p.m. CT in the bubble at Disney World. LeBron and the Lakers are already pretty significant favorites (more than seven points as of the morning of Oct. 8) over Butler and the Heat.