Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler may be a killer on the basketball court, but the six-time All-Star is simply a father wanting to spend time with his daughter off the court.
Following Miami’s shocking Game 5 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks, which advanced the Heat to the second round of the NBA Playoffs, Butler was asked about his plans in between series.
Jimmy Butler, #22 of the Miami Heat, celebrates a play during Round One Game Five of the 2023 NBA Playoffs on April 26, 2023 at the Fiserv Forum Center in Milwaukee. (Gary Dineen/NBAE via Getty Images)
“I’m going to play with my daughter, man,” Butler said postgame. “I love her to death. I miss her. I’ve been away for a very long time. We’re going to get ice cream, we’re going to the park, we’re doing a lot of different stuff.”
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Butler has earned himself some time away after the series he had against the Bucks.
Milwaukee was expected to quickly dispatch the Heat after Miami needed a win against the Chicago Bulls in the NBA’s play-in tournament in order to make the playoffs.
The Bucks won 58 regular season games and earned the one-seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Jimmy Butler, #22 of the Miami Heat, shoots over Bobby Portis, #9 of the Milwaukee Bucks, during the first half of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference First Round Playoffs at Fiserv Forum on April 26, 2023 in Milwaukee. (Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
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However, it was Butler and the hot three-point shooting of his Miami teammates that sent Milwaukee home early, becoming just the sixth one-seed to lose to an eight-seed.
“We just play hard,” Butler said, according to ESPN. “We know what we’re capable of. We don’t listen to the outside noise, and we will not listen to any outside noise.
“We’re going to do what we do.”
Jimmy Butler, #22 of the Miami Heat, looks on after the game against the Milwaukee Bucks during Round 1 Game 5 of the 2023 NBA Playoffs on April 26, 2023 at the Fiserv Forum Center in Milwaukee. (Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Getty Images)
Butler scored a playoff franchise-record 56 points in Game 4 and followed it with a 42-point performance to close out the Bucks.
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“He’s desperate and urgent and maniacal and sometimes psychotic about the will to try to win,” Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra said of Butler. “He’ll make everybody in the building feel it. That’s why he is us and we are him. That’s the way we operate as well.”
Miami will now renew an old-school rivalry with the New York Knicks in the second round.
The Associated Press contributed to this report