The Heat (6-7) celebrates the spectacular return of their star Jimmy Butler on Monday night at Kaseya Center, with 30 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists in the 106-89 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers.
Butler had played the first nine games with the Miami Quintet at the start of the NBA regular season but lost the next four after an ankle twist in the clash against the Nuggets in Denver on November 8. On Monday, all doubts were cleared.
“We know the expectations that exist when Jimmy is healthy,” said coach Erik Spoelstra after the win over Philadelphia. He set the tone by imposing his physical determination.
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At 35, Butler is a decisive player. The calendar is not progressing in vain and that is very clear to Spoelstra.
“We’re going to keep Jimmy physically as young as you can for the rest of the year,” the strategist confessed. We’ll use the depth of our team for it.
Indeed, with the intensity of the campaign there is enormous wear and tear and the weight of the years do not go unnoticed. It feels like the effort made to win every game in the NBA.
“I finished a little tired, I’m not going to lie,” Buttler confessed after his reappearance.
I’m still a little out of shape, but we have a few days to get back on track. I’m happy to compete alongside my teammates.
Butler is serving the last of his three-year contract with the Heat valued at $48.8 million.
He can extend his commitment to the Miami franchise for $53.4 million a year, but he has the option to become a free agent and sign for four years and $243 million with Surfers or sign for three years and $171 with another club.
Everything indicates that Butler prefers to make the most of the last years of his professional career.
The Heat, however, puts on the scales other factors, such as the age and injuries of the striker.
Last season the star missed 22 matches. And in his 14 years in the NBA only once he has completed all 82 games of the regular season.
Heat president Pat Riley said last May that the franchise feels unsure of giving Butler a long contract extension.
He added that he has not yet been discussed inside the club and that there is still a deadline until 2025 to make a decision.
Meanwhile, Butler highlights the support he receives from his teammates and spares no praise for Tyler Herro.
“This kid who’s here [Herro] has held the team at the start of the campaign,” Butler said.
I want to go back to make things a little easier. Herro has played at a spectacular level in the 13 starts of the campaign and in the triumph over the Sixers he contributed 18 units.
The Heat was returning to the Kaseya Center after their six-gase tour in 12 days around the United States, and after Monday’s clash, there will be a deserved five-day break until the game against the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday, November 24, also at home. “We needed this break,” Herro said.
Do I think each of us will take a couple of days off to perform some therapy and allow the body to recover? Then we’ll come back and prepare for the new stretch of games that come to us.
These five days of rest fall perfectly for the club because, in addition to giving rest to the troops, it will allow the injured to recover.
Jaime Jaquez Jr., with an ankle twist, and Terry Rozier III, with a foot problem, were ruled out for the encounter with Philadelphia. “Rozier’s jumped on Sunday,” Spoelstra said.
I’ve been dragging the problem for some time, but after the game and the trip back to Miami, it didn’t get better.
Spoelstra added that the favorable thing for Rozier is that this week, without playing, he will be allowed to follow treatment.
The coach has given his players 2 days off. Then they will return to practice on Thursday for Sunday’s clash.
