Is a 'Little Block' and a Big Hug a Turning Point for the Heat's Season?
Jimmy Butler's block on Devin Booker is the signature play of the season for a Miami Heat team that has won three in a row.
As Jimmy Butler crossed the scorers table he let out a hoot and walked right into the outstretched arms of Erik Spoelstra. The embrace lasted only a couple of beats but the emotion was palpable.
Just moments before the hug Butler put the final nail in the Miami Heat’s 13-point comeback win over the Phoenix Suns, final score 113-112, on Monday night. After Bam Adebayo put the Heat up by one with a pair of free throws, the Suns had a chance to retake the advantage with 35 seconds left in a game that featured five lead changes over the final 1:38. Cameron Payne’s layup rimmed out, DeAndre Ayton recovered the offensive rebound and Booker got the ball in the middle of the floor with 10 seconds to go with a chance to salvage the game.
With Butler defending, Booker dribbled to his right twice and rose up for the go-ahead 18-footer. Butler went up with him and blocked the shot with his left hand. Booker picked up the loose ball and gave it a hopeless heave before the final buzzer sounded. You could hardly hear it over the cheers from fans.
If any of those things go differently — if Adebayo misses a free throw, if Payne makes the layup, if Butler fouls Booker — the Heat might not have pulled off their best win of the season. Instead of a 13-point, fourth-quarter comeback ending in hoots and hugs, the end could have looked more like the rest of the second half, when Kyle Lowry was berating Duncan Robinson for a missed defensive rotation and players appeared antsy on the bench and unsure on the court. Very un-Heat like.
It’s hard not to think back to March, when in last season’s loss to the Warriors Butler and Spoelstra had to be separated during a heated sideline exchange. Could the end of this game have looked more like that instead? There were certainly enough bottled up emotions, and emotions can be let out in any manner of forms.
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