NBA Playoff Notebook: Jimmy Butler's Heat End Bucks, Knicks Eliminate Cavs, More

DALLAS - The NBA playoffs continue to be full of surprises with the latest taking place during Wednesday night's action. The Milwaukee Bucks, the team with the NBA's top record, were surprisingly eliminated in just five games. Meanwhile, the New York Knicks closed out the Cleveland Cavaliers. There was a lot to take note of with four total games being played.

DallasBasketball.com takes a look at the top storylines from around the NBA playoffs, with a focused look at Wednesday's action.

Heat Complete Surprising Series Win vs. Bucks

Jimmy Butler continued his incredible postseason play and was integral in leading the Miami Heat to a 128-126 overtime win over the Bucks. The victory ended the series 4-1. Butler totaled 42 points, eight rebounds, and four assists for Miami.

“He’s desperate and urgent and maniacal and sometimes psychotic about the will to try to win,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Butler. “He’ll make everybody in the building feel it. That’s why he is us and we are him. That's the way we operate as well.”

In order for the Heat to even be in position to not even just win, but to even force overtime, it took an incredible rallying effort in the fourth quarter. Miami had outscored the Bucks 32-16 after being outscored by a 10-point margin in the third quarter.

The Heat had just come off a game outscoring the Bucks 30-13 in the last six minutes of regulation in their Game 4 victory, showing an ability to overcome challenging situations in the most important of moments. Butler averaging 37.6 points per game in the series certainly helped.

“We're a resilient group,” Butler said. “We stick together through everything.”

It was a rough outcome for the Bucks after holding a 102-86 lead entering the fourth quarter. Milwaukee shot 5-25 from the floor in the fourth quarter and overtime. They shot just 62.2 percent on free throws with Giannis Antetokounmpo accounting for 13 of the team's 17 misses.

Antetokounmpo did rack up 38 points and 20 rebounds, with Khris Middleton also totaling 33 points, six rebounds, and six assists. Those outstanding performance weren't nearly enough. The rest of the Bucks' core did play well, with Brook Lopez totaling 18 points and 10 rebounds. Jrue Holiday had 16 points, nine rebounds, and six assists. Again, all of that wasn't enough.

Butler wasn't alone in his strong performance. Gabe Vincent scored 22 poitnts and dished out six assists with Tyler Herro and Victor Oladipo both sidelined due to injury. Bam Adebayo achieved a triple-double with 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists. Kevin Love also added 15 points and 12 rebounds.

The Heat will now take on Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Given that Miami is the eighth-seed, the series will begin with Game 1 being hosted at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.

Warriors Take 3-2 Series Lead Over Kings

Despite struggling on the road throughout the regular season, the Golden State Warriors achieved a pivotal 123-116 victory against the Sacramento Kings at Golden 1 Center, gaining a 3-2 series lead.

“This is a different team than what we had all year,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “What happened in November and December and January on the road has nothing to do right now. This is the team we’re looking at, is a team that won a championship last year and won a ton of road playoff games. Our guys know how to do it and got it done tonight.”

There was a significant amount of production from the Warriors' top perimeter talents. Steph Curry led with 31 points and eight assists. Klay Thompson added 25 points with five made 3s and Andrew Wiggins chipped in 20 points, along with a pair of steals and blocks.

“Big night for us,” Curry said. “You can feel the sense of accomplishment from everyone on the bench and on the floor. … We have work to do. We needed this one.”

The Warriors created their greatest swing with a 12-0 run in the second quarter, using a trio of made 3s from Thompson. Golden State led 60-56 heading into the locker room at halftime. They continued to gain separation, scoring 39 points in the third quarter.

The Kings did not back down. Sacramento missed a game-tying 3-pointer with just 1:04 left in regulation. Wiggins executed a tough look on a turnaround jumper followed by a Curry make from deep to take a 122-114 led with 22.1 seconds remaining in the game.

“The experience that they’ve had over the last decade playing in a lot of big games, it’s definitely helpful,” Kerr said. “I thought they did a great job tonight of staying poised down the stretch when Sacramento made their run and really made some big plays in the last five minutes to seal it.”

The Warriors continued to deploy a small unit with Jordan Poole starting and Kevon Looney as the lone big while Draymond Green came off the bench. Green thrived with 21 points and seven assists as Looney continued to set the tone inside with 22 rebounds and seven assists.

De'Aaron Fox, who is playing through a hand injury, was clearly limited in clutch time for the Kings. He totaled 24 points, seven rebounds, and nine assists, but shot just 9-25 overall and 3-10 from deep with six turnovers. He missed all six shot attempts in the fourth quarter. Domantas Sabonis and Malik Monk each contributed 21 points, but it wasn't enough.

“Yeah, no doubt [it's impacting him],” Kings coach Mike Brown said about Fox’s injury. “He’s shown a lot of toughness being out there in the first place.”

Grizzlies Stay Alive Using Game 5 Victory

In what very well could have been a similar situation as what the Bucks faced in terms of early elimination as a high seeded team, the Memphis Grizzlies will instead live to fight another day. The Grizzlies defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 116-99 to force a Game 6 after trailing in the series 3-1.

The Grizzlies kicked things off scoring 38 points in the opening period and taking a 14-point lead as a result. The Lakers never managed to rally back. Desmond Bane led with 33 points and 10 rebounds. Ja Morant was as close as it gets to matching with 31 points and 10 rebounds.

“I said it out there, and I’ll say it again," Bane said. "We are going to be back for a Game 7 in front of the best fans in the NBA.”

Anthony Davis thrived with 31 points, 19 rebounds, and two blocks, but the Lakers were unable to stay afloat without him on the floor. The Grizzlies took advantage of him only playing 35 minutes in what could have been a closeout game. The Lakers trailed just 75-74 before Davis checked out at the 4:10 mark of the third quarter.

"Obviously, Memphis knows," Davis said of his bench rotation. "They attack the paint hard when I'm not in the game."

If the Lakers need Davis to play more in Game 6, he's ready to do so.

"I'm willing to play 48. This is what you play an entire season for," Davis said. "So if Coach needs me to play 42, 45, 48, or whatever minutes to get the job done, I'll be ready to do so."

LeBron James, D'Angelo Russell, and Austin Reaves each struggled to score despite being hot earlier in the series. James had just 15 points while shooting 5-17 from the floor and 1-9 from 3-point range. The Lakers received just 28 points combined for Russell and Reaves on 8-24 from the floor.

"Just got to be better," James said. "It starts with me. Tonight I was not very good at all. My defense was pretty good. Offensively, I was not really good. So, we all got to do a better job helping one another."

Knicks Close Out Series Against Cavs

The playoffs are the greatest test for any NBA team to learn more about the identity they've established, or realize they lack one altogether. The Knicks clinched a series victory in just five games with their 106-95 win over the Cavaliers in Game 5.

"I thought about that today. It’s a really cool experience, knowing that my Dad played here,” Knicks star Jalen Brunson said. "He didn’t lead that team, but he was on that team that got to the Finals. It’s special and the connection with my Dad and everything, it's all full circle. It’s really special.”

Despite losing Julius Randle to a re-aggravation of his ankle injury after 16 minutes of action, the Knicks were comfortably able to overcome. Brunson set the tone with 21 points, but Mitchell Robinson doing the dirty work with 13 points, 18 rebounds, three blocks, and two steals was pivotal.

R.J. Barrett was effective once again with 21 points, which was important to see after a slow start to the series. With Randle going down, Barrett's scoring ability was all the more needed for the Knicks to close the series out.

Donovan Mitchell scored 28 points but needed 26 shots to get there, shooting 11-26 from the floor and 3-12 from deep. The Cavs received poor production from what many considered as being a rock solid frontcourt with Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen combining for 10 points and 13 rebounds. They were single handily outplayed by Mitchell.

“For it to end this way, it doesn’t feel right,” Mitchell said. “They outplayed us. It’s as simple as that. They did their job and we didn’t. For me, personally, I don’t feel like I was the player I needed to be for this group. I just didn’t deliver.”

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