In a building where Dwyane Wade dazzled, Shaquille O’Neal dominated and LeBron James devastated, Jimmy Butler outdid them all Monday night.
Scoring 56 points, the most in Miami Heat playoff history, Butler led a heart-stopping fourth-quarter rally from 12 down with 5:57 to play to position the Heat within one victory of eliminating the No. 1-seeded Milwaukee Bucks from the postseason.
Even with Giannis Antetokounmpo returning from a back injury to close with a triple-double, there was no stopping Butler and the Heat from moving to a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference playoff series.
Simply put, Monday night’s 119-114 Heat victory at Kaseya Center was pure Butler, a single-minded player putting his imprint on a playoff night in a way the Wade, O’Neal or even James had not before.
He simply refused to lose.
So he didn’t.
“My teammates kept feeding me the ball,” he said, “telling me to attack.”
Butler’s 56 were seven off Michael Jordan’s all-time playoff record of 63, tied for the fourth-highest total in playoff history.
“We’re witnessing a guy who continues to be in his prime,” teammate Kyle Lowry said.
Not even Antetokounmpo, with his 26 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds, his third career playoff triple-double, could stop the freight train that was Butler.
“There’s a brilliance about how he competes at the game of basketball, and I think that probably sums it up the best,” coach Erik Spoelstra said.
Butler was sublime for the Heat, setting the tone with 22 points in the first quarter. It was his seventh 40-point playoff game for the Heat, tying Wade’s franchise record.
Antetokounmpo, back from his lower-back contusion, was merely, well, himself.
And on this night, that was not good enough.
Beyond Butler, the Heat got 15 points from Bam Adebayo, 12 from Caleb Martin and 10 from Gabe Vincent.
No, not much else.
So Butler simply did it all.
Antetokounmpo was supported by 36 points and 11 rebounds from center Brook Lopez.
The series continues with a 9:30 p.m. Eastern game on Wednesday night at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum, before a possible return to Kaseya Center for Friday’s Game 6. Should a Game 7 be needed, it would be Sunday in Milwaukee, the advantage of the Bucks being the No. 1 seed in the East, the Heat the No. 8.
“We still have work to do,” Spoelstra said, “so I don’t want to say too much. There’s no time to exhale, at all.
“The series is still going and we have great respect for the championship DNA that that group has.”
Five Degrees of Heat from Monday’s game:
1. Closing time: The Bucks pushed to an early 12-point lead, took a 33-28 edge into the second period and moved to a 57-50 halftime lead.
From there, the Bucks pushed to a 15-point lead in the third period after the Heat had closed within seven in the quarter, with Milwaukee up 89-78 going into the fourth.
The Heat then opened the fourth quarter with neither Butler nor Adebayo on the floor.
Butler returned with 8:11 to play and the Heat down 98-87.
Back in attack mode, Butler then scored five consecutive Heat points to draw the Heat within 101-96 with 4:42 left.
Five consecutive points from reserve forward Martin followed to get the Heat within 101-100, with a Butler transition dunk putting the Heat ahead 102-101 with 3:17 left, the Heat’s first lead of the night.
“Caleb,” Spoelstra said, “you can’t say enough about him.”
Antetokounmpo followed with a 3-point play with 3:03 left for a 104-102 Milwaukee lead, with a Jrue Holiday 3-pointer then offsetting a Martin 3-pointer, leaving the Bucks up two.
A pair of Butler free throws were then offset by a Lopez dunk, leaving Milwaukee up 109-107 with 1:32 left.
But back came Butler with a 3-pointer for a 110-109 Heat lead with another Butler jumper, overturned from a 3-pointer, putting the Heat up 111-109 with 58.2 seconds left.
Two Butler free throws followed for a 114-109 Heat lead, the Heat riding it out from there.
“It’s a game of runs. We withstood theirs,” Butler said.
Spoelstra said the pushback did not come as surprise.
“It’s the makeup of this group,” Spoelstra said. “We have great competitors in this locker room, and you keep on just plugging away.”
2. Opening statement: Butler scored 22 points in the first quarter on 9-of-10 shooting, including 2 of 2 on 3-pointers, scoring 20 consecutive Heat points in one stretch.
It tied Wade for the highest-scoring quarter in Heat playoff history and surpassed Butler’s previous career high of 21 points in any quarter, playoffs or regular season.
It gave Butler 66 first-quarter points through the series’ first four games.
“I’m just hooping, playing basketball the right way,” Butler said.
Butler became the fifth player of the past 25 postseasons to score 20 consecutive points for his team, joining Tracy McGrady, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Ja Morant, who did it this past Saturday.
“It always helps,” Spoelstra said, “to have a guy like Jimmy Butler.”
Along the way, Butler passed Tom Heinsohn for 58th on the NBA all-time playoff scoring list and Steve Nash for 57th.
Butler had been listed as questionable earlier in the day with a gluteus bruise.
What Spoelstra said should not be overlooked was Butler’s doing it all while playing lockdown defense.
“In this game,” Spoelstra said, “Jimmy guarded every single player on their roster, at some point.”
3. Giannis back: Antetokounmpo filled the box score early in his return, with nine points, four assists and four rebounds in the first quarter, up to 17 points, seven rebounds and six assists at halftime and then within two assists of his triple-double entering the fourth.
The Bucks somewhat eased Antetokounmpo back into the mix, giving him the initial defensive assignment against Kevin Love.
They then protected him from his third foul in the second period, winning a challenge on what initially was called a blocking foul on Antetokounmpo.
“His physicality and his ability to get to the rim is otherworldly,” Spoelstra said. “He has a way of breaking your defense down.”
4. Adebayo’s struggles: With Adebayo called for his second foul just 3:28 into the game, it put the shorthanded Heat in a further bind.
That had Haywood Highsmith entering and taking the defensive assignment on Antetokounmpo.
Adebayo’s first foul came on a driving Antetokounmpo 3-point play. His second came needlessly on the perimeter against Bucks guard Grayson Allen.
The early substitution left Love as the lone power-rotation player on the court, with Cody Zeller then forced into early minutes.
Adebayo closed 6 of 16 from the field, with eight rebounds.
“Biggest thing I could do was try to put the ball in the basket a couple of times,” Adebayo said. “It was one of those things where shots weren’t falling.”
5. Robinson’s run: Duncan Robinson again displayed a revived 3-point stroke for the Heat, with three by the intermission.
Robinson got an early call when Max Strus was called for a pair of first-quarter fouls.
With his nine first-half points, Robinson joined Butler as the only Heat players with more than six over the opening two periods.
Robinson then played at closing time over Strus, as well, going 30:19.
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