Jimmy Butler declined to hold the ECF Champions trophy and said to his teammates, “I’ll hold the next one” but now it might be a long wait for another championship opportunity.
Miami went down in five games to the first-seeded Denver and lost 94-89 in the final Game 5.
Butler’s name was trending on Twitter throughout the game and afterwards as he went missing in the contest. Playoff Himmy was nowhere to be seen.
He scored 21 points, three rebounds and five assists in Monday’s contest but shot 5-18 from the field and 2-5 from three.
After the game, Jimmy was asked in the press conference whether his ankle was affecting him much.
“Zero,” Butler said. “My ankle’s fine. We just didn’t win, there’s no excuse. They beat us.”
The forward was also asked about what the last four years in Miami have been like for him.
“It’s been great,” Butler said. “I’ve had some helluva teammates come through and compete with me and give us the opportunity to win a championship.
“Which I still believe with everything in me that we will.
“The four years have been great. It’s always nice to loved, wanted, appreciated and I don’t think that’s going to change.
“… I’m grateful that we made it here. We came up short, but I’m blessed. I’m fortunate.”
The Heat weren’t able to produce a scoreline above 100 points throughout the five games v the Nuggets but Butler doesn’t see that as an issue going forward.
“You don’t have to score 100 points to win a basketball game,” Butler said. “I think we’ll be okay.”
Butler’s teammate Bam Adebayo has this to say about his undrafted teammates following the loss:
“It was a joy to get this far…I don’t care what anybody says, you can never count these guys out.”
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