Going into Game 3 of the NBA Finals, the Miami Heat had one thing clear: If they want to win the championship, that game was vital to their aspirations. No team has come back from a 0-3 loss in the playoffs and that’s what they faced if they fell. Then, Jimmy Butler emerged as the solution and was the big star of the day. But how historic has his performance been?
In the 115-104 victory of his team against the Los Angeles Lakers, the perimeter registered a list of 40 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists. That forty-point triple-double puts him squarely in an elite group: only Jerry West in 1969 and LeBron James in 2015 did it in a title eliminator.
In addition, Butler joined James himself and Dwyane Wade as the only players in the Florida franchise capable of scoring at least 30 points in a Finals game. As for his rivalry with the California forward, he has been the first athlete in NBA history to surpass him in points, rebounds and assists in a game of that instance.
The figure of the Heat was decisive in attack: he scored or assisted in 73 of the 115 points that his team scored in the victory. That’s the second-biggest brand with those characteristics, second only to Walt Frazier’s 74. The perimeter is the first to reach 40 without scoring a single triple since Shaquille O’Neal did it in the 2002 key.
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