Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler shows crazy toughness after suffering knee injury
We know just how important Jimmy Butler is to the success of the Miami Heat. The future Hall of Famer played elite-level basketball in leading them to a surprise appearance in the NBA Finals a season ago.
Wednesday night’s NBA Play-In Tournament matchup between the eighth-seeded Heat and the seventh-seeded Philadelphia 76ers was expected to feature more of the same from Butler in the postseason.
With six points in the first quarter, Butler made this happen really early on. Regrettably, he crashed into his right knee awkwardly after attempting a layup early in the first verse, causing excruciating pain. Philadelphia was not a fantastic scene.
Butler stayed down on the court for several minutes before ultimately hitting the charity stripe for free throws.
It must be noted that players are unable to return to a game if they can’t shoot free throws. We saw this play out in the 2019 NBA Finals when Golden State Warriors star Klay Thompson remained in the game to shoot free throws after suffering a knee injury that was ultimately diagnosed as a torn ACL.
As for Butler, he remained in the game for the opening of the second quarter. The wing was still obviously hobbling at that point. But he was not about to come out.
Jimmy Butler stats (2023-24): 20.8 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 5.0 APG, 41% shooting
Given the pain Butler was in after going down in the first place, it’s truly amazing that he was able to finish this crucial game.
This merely serves to highlight Jimmy Buckets’ extreme toughness over the course of his career. It remains to be seen if this affects his play on Wednesday and possibly going further in the NBA Playoffs.
In the event that Miami prevails, the team will play the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Playoffs’ opening round, which begins this weekend. In the event of a loss, Friday night’s game against the winner of the Atlanta Hawks and Chicago Bulls would be crucial.
