Jimmy Butler's 'Main Quest' Pushes New York Knicks Closer to Play-In Tournament
Jimmy Butler just seems to be the "boss" at the end of that one level the New York Knicks can't get past.
As the one-year anniversary of their most recent playoff series approaches, Butler's Miami Heat once again dealt the Knicks a dangerous blow.
With a 109-99 win at Kaseya Center on Tuesday night, the seventh-place Heat moved to within two games of New York for a tie in the fourth spot it shares with Orlando on the Eastern Conference leaderboard. One of the Knicks' biggest rivals also dealt them their first three-game losing streak since mid-February, when they dropped four in a row amidst an assortment of injuries and trades.
Messing with the Knicks could well be downloadable content to Butler, whose success in the spring was compared to progress in a video game by New York victim Josh Hart.
"Jimmy kind of does side quests during the year until about April," Hart said prior to Tuesday's game, per Stefan Bondy of the New York Post. "Then he starts locking in. I’m sure people are going to see that maniac competitive side now that he’s done with the side quests and he’s on to the main quest."
Butler had some help this time around, as former Charlotte Hornet Terry Rozier had his best game as a South Floridian with 34 points mostly earned on eight three-pointers. The six-time All-Star did most of his damage in the first half, scoring 13 points and dishing out five assists as the Heat built an early lead that peaked at 16. Butler previously averaged 24.6 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 6.0 assists when the Heat ended the Knicks' most lucrative playoff run in a decade with a six-game Eastern Conference Semifinal victory last spring.
To Hart's point about "side quests," Butler has led recent runs of Miami prosperity despite a noticeable lack of dominant regular seasons: last year, for example, the Heat beat the Knicks and later reached the NBA Finals as an eighth seed before falling to the Denver Nuggets. That came three seasons after they reached the NBA Finals in the Walt Disney World bubble as a fifth seed.
With Butler's postseason expertise and Miami's victorious postseason knoweldge, the Heat should no doubt stand as one of the Eastern Conference's most dangerous contenders once the tournament gets underway. Time will tell if the Knicks get a chance to cool them down.
GEOFF MAGLIOCCHETTI
Editor-In-Chief at All Knicks