Stephen A. Smith Had No Problem With Jimmy Butler's Last Shot

A lot of critics drew an issue with Jimmy Butler's late 3-pointer attempt in Sunday's Game 7 loss that but ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith made it clear he had a problem with it.

“Zero,” Smith said on ESPN's First Take. “You can look at the numbers and point out that in the postseason, during the playoffs, he was 10 of 26, 38 percent in pull-up threes. You can point to things like that even though he ended up shooting 29 percent from three-point range for this series. I take into account a few things.”

Butler was criticized despite having one of the best postseasons in NBA history.

“Number one, he has been making shots throughout the last two games or so.” Smith said. “Remember, he went through a three-game stretch where he was only averaging nine points after averaging 35 in the first two games of this series and then the last three, he really really turned it on, particularly the last two, where he ended up scoring 82 points in two games.”

Smith continued saying “But this is the part that I think everybody is missing. Jimmy Butler is aware: Kyle Lowry ain’t healthy, Max Strus isn’t 100 percent healthy, Tyler Herro was out there trying to give you what he could, even though he wasn’t healthy with his groin injury. You have so many guys depleted by injuries. You’re down two. You came back with an 11-0 run to pull within two. Jimmy Butler didn’t want overtime because Jimmy Butler ain’t healthy either. This guy was pushing and pushing and he knew he didn’t have but so much left.”

“So what did he do? He made a decision, recognizing himself and the rest of the team and the precarious situation they were in due to their debilitating health and he said ‘I have a chance to win this right here’.

Cory Nelson is a contributor to Inside The Heat. He attended Northern Virginia Community College. He can be reached at corymckenzienelson@hotmail.com or follow him on Twitter @CKenzyNelson