Fantastic Jimmy Butler Frustrates LeBron James, Heat Beat Lakers, 115-104

The shorthanded Miami Heat showed incredible will and heart tonight, defeating the LA Lakers in Game 3 of the NBA Finals, 115-104. With Jimmy Butler in the main role, the Eastern Conference champions beat the heavily favored purple and gold, preserving some chances for winning the title.

Butler smashed LeBron James in a direct matchup scoring 40 points and posting a triple-double. It seems that James provoked Jimmy B, with early trash-talk, saying that he and the Heat are in trouble. The final result is that LBJ left the court 10 seconds before the end of the game, not even congratulating the rivals.

This move once again caused numerous reactions on the social networks, where some condemned James for that, while others defended the Lakers’ players.

“Also, I don’t feel like we’re concerned. We’re not concerned. We know we can play a lot better. We have another opportunity to take a commanding lead on Tuesday,” he said following the match.

James ended the night with 25 points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists, shooting 9-for-16 from the floor. He couldn’t match Butler’s intensity of play, and also, didn’t have proper help from the rest of the teammates.

Anthony Davis scored just 15 points with five boards in 33 minutes, posting arguably the worst game since the start of the bubble. Markieff Morris and Kyle Kuzma added 19 apiece off the bench, but that didn’t help the purple and gold.

Lakers were constantly trailing and were coming back into the match, often taking the lead. But they didn’t have the power to seize the momentum and break the feisty Heat, who appeared without Bam Adebayo and Goran Dragic for the second straight match.

After being down 68-54 midway through the third, the LAL got a 91-89 lead early on in the last quarter. It seemed that they finally solved the Heat, but Butler and Tyler Herro stepped up to close this event.

Butler had 13 assists and 11 boards with two blocks and steals each, hitting 12 of his 14 free throws and 14 of his 20 shots from the field. All of those were for two points, and he ended the night without firing a single shot from downtown. His performance was one of the best ever in the NBA finals.

“This is what he wanted, this is what we wanted,” Erik Spoelstra said about his best player tonight. “It’s really hard to analyze or describe Jimmy until you actually feel him between the four lines. He’s a supreme, elite competitor, and we needed it.”

Tyler Herro had 17 points, some of them in the very important moments of the fourth period, with the entire game on the line. Kelly Olunyk also scored 17 buckets, with 7 boards, in 31 minutes off the bench. He’s been very good in using the minutes provided after Adebayo’s injury, and so far, the Lakers didn’t find a proper solution for him.

Duncan Robinson had 13 points, Jae Crowder 12 and 8 boards, doing their part of the job correctly.

A very big enigma for the upcoming Game 4 is Bam Adebayo’s condition. The powerful center is still struggling with his neck and shoulder injury, and even though there were some chances of him playing in Game 3, that didn’t happen. We can say that the series is now at the turning point and that Adebayo’s presence would be of enormous importance to the Heat.

Game 4 is this Tuesday at 9 pm ET.