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Miami Heat Forward Jimmy Butler’s Ankle Injury Could Be A Death Knell For Their Title Hopes

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Heat Forward Jimmy Butler goes down with injury

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Miami Heat star forward Jimmy Butler is renowned for his toughness. The future Hall-of-Famer has been out-gritting his opponents for all of his twelve-year career.

And, Jimmy Butler was maybe at the best he has ever been in his career last week against the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.

The Heat were huge underdogs going into the series, as the Milwaukee Bucks were the odds-on title favorite. But, Jimmy Butler had other ideas. He averaged a remarkable 37.6 points per game to go along with 6.0 assists and 4.8 rebounds. He closed out the series with a 56-point performance in game 4 and a 42-point performance in game 5 as the Heat won in five in an all-time shocker.

That set up an Eastern Conference Semifinals series against their old 90s rivals, the New York Knicks. And, for a while,
Jimmy Butler looked like the guy who carried the Miami Heat over the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round.

But, disaster may have struck in the fourth quarter, when Jimmy Butler went down with an ankle injury.

He stayed in the game, but he limped around the rest of the game. Despite that, the Miami Heat still took game 1, 108-101.

But, with ankle injuries, it’s always about how much swelling there is going to be the in the few days after the injury. And, if he has to miss time, team devoid of scoring already and without Tyler Herro will really struggle to score points.

After the game, Jimmy Butler and Miami Heat head coach Eric Spoelstra spoke out about the injury. Butler even cracked a joke.

But, Spoelstra was a little more serious.

Game 2 of the series is back at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, and it seems likely that Jimmy Butler will miss that game. But, the teams get three days off before game 3 back in Miami on Saturday. That could play to both teams’ benefits, as the Knicks are also without Julius Randle with an ankle injury of his own.