Was Payton Pritchard’s Play Against Jimmy Butler a Dirty Move?
The Miami Heat survived against the Boston Celtics in a 109-103 win to go up 2-1 in the series. The biggest story of the night was the injuries to star players. Jimmy Butler went out at halftime with right knee inflammation and did not play at all the second half. The Heat still took the victory, and Butler is projected to play tonight. However, some concerns have been raised regarding the play that may have caused this injury.
Celtics point guard Payton Pritchard was seen tripping Butler midway through the second quarter of Game 4.
This was the same knee that kept Butler out of the remainder of the matchup. Pritchard was issued a common foul for the play, but this seemed to meet the criteria for a flagrant foul.
This was compared to the incident with Ja Morant and Jordan Poole in the Western Conference Semifinals. However, Poole was trying to make a play on the basketball and just accidentally contacted Morant’s knee. Pritchard’s move is harder to justify, as he is seen intentionally trying to trip Butler.
Regardless of whether this play caused the knee injury, it was still dangerous and hard to defend as a “basketball play.”
Head coach Erik Spoelstra spoke to reporters about this issue at TD Garden.
“It could have had an effect,” Spoelstra said. “It was not a basketball play. We don’t know why it was determined a basketball play or a safe play. We don’t care, the league doesn’t have to do anything.”
The Heat will play the Celtics tonight at 8:30 p.m. EST.
Jayden Armant is a contributor to Inside The Heat. He is a student at Howard University. He can be reached at jayden.armant@bison.howard.edu or follow him on Twitter @jaydenarmant.
