Miami Heat’s forward Jimmy Butler eliminated the Milwaukee Bucks three weeks ago. It sucked to cheer against Butler, and Miami left a bad taste in my mouth. When the Heat took on LeBron James, my Marquette part of my brain turned on. Cheering for Butler or Jae Crowder is a no-brainer instead of cheering for James or Anthony Davis. I’m a Marquette fan too and want to see Golden Eagles flourish in the pros. Therefore, it was absolutely awesome to have Butler go off against Los Angeles in Game 3. Butler finished with 40 points, 13 assists, and 11 rebounds willing Miami to a Finals victory.

🔥 3rd player in Finals history post a 40-point triple-double (LeBron, Jerry West)
🔥 3rd player since 1980 to score 40+ points without taking a three in the Finals (Shaq, Kareem)
🔥 Led the Heat to the 2nd biggest #NBAFinals upset in past 30 seasons

What a night from Jimmy 👀 pic.twitter.com/YWsfaLIykX

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 5, 2020

The fact that Butler finished off his game by telling LeBron that ‘he is trouble’ is a cherry on top. One of the things that are likable about Butler even if you’re not a Marquette fan is that he doesn’t kowtow to LeBron. Butler thinks he is on the same level as James. While that’s not true, you have to appreciate the self-confidence from the Heat forward. James might follow his trend that he did the last three series where they have one ‘WTF’ game then beat up the opposition. Regardless of that, we still have this one game where he took it to LeBron and Anthony Davis.

Glad that this happened in the series too because I was ready to jump on the podcast today and say that I couldn’t care less about this series. It felt like a sweep. Felt like Los Angeles would roll and all of us would ignore the results. Now, there is a bit of juice in the series. There is a reason to care about Game 4 on Tuesday night especially if Bam Adebayo and/or Goran Dragic play too.

Charlie.