Jimmy Butler just put the rest of the East on notice with a vintage bubble performance

This was 2020 Jimmy Butler.

Earning the top seed in the Eastern Conference did little to quell doubt as to whether the Miami Heat are actually the East’s best team. There’s no shortage of people who believe the reigning champion Milwaukee Bucks are still the team to beat…or the Boston Celtics, or the Philadelphia 76ers. Even the No. 7 Brooklyn Nets are being given a chance.

I’m here to say it’s about time we start putting a little more respect on the team that actually finished No. 1 – especially after what we just saw from Jimmy Butler in Tuesday’s win over the Atlanta Hawks. He scored 45 points on 60% shooting in a performance we haven’t seen from him since the 2020 bubble postseason when the Heat reached the NBA Finals.

If this version of Butler continues to show up, I love Miami’s odds to make it back two years later at +300 odds on Tipico Sportsbook.

The 45 points were a playoff-career high for Butler and put him in elite company, as he joined LeBron James and Dwyane Wade as the only Heat players with at least three 40-point playoff games.

Butler’s other two 40-pieces each came in those 2020 playoffs when he scored 40 in Game 1 of their series against the Bucks and 40 against the Lakers in Game 3 of the finals. The Heat won both games, and the first set the tone for their gentleman’s sweep of the Bucks and MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. They beat the Celtics in the conference finals.

Milwaukee paid the favor back last postseason, sweeping Miami in the first round. But this is a different Heat team this year, a deeper and healthier Heat team. A team without glaring weaknesses and a top-five defensive rating. All it needs is for Butler to be the aggressive version of himself when necessary, a closer they can rely on for clutch buckets when the offense bogs down. He hadn’t scored 40 in a game since 2020, and he only had one game of at least 35 points on 60% shooting between now and then.

If Tuesday’s game is any indication, he’s up to the challenge of putting this team on his back again. That’s a scary sight for the rest of the East.

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