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Jimmy Butler had stepped out of bounds before his costly turnover vs Bucks in Game 2

Amulya Shekhar
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Jimmy Butler had stepped out of bounds

The Miami Heat chanced upon a most uncharacteristic error to take Game 2. This was following their best player Jimmy Butler committing some harakiri of his own.

With the Miami Heat leading the game by 6 points with just over 19 seconds left in the 4th quarter, the Milwaukee Bucks called timeout. Mike Budenholzer drew up a play that gave Middleton the ball at the top of the key. But instead of taking a 3-pointer, Middleton managed to find Giannis on a screen-and-roll for an easy, open dunk.

Jimmy Butler commits a bad turnover; however he was out of bounds

Antetokounmpo’s dunk came with around 14 seconds left on the shot clock. The Miami Heat decided to restart the game with Goran Dragic throwing the ball to Jimmy Butler. The other 3 Heat players advanced to the front court, leaving only Butler and Dragic in the backcourt.

Also Read: Giannis Antetokounmpo addresses free throw struggles

The Bucks immediately threw a trap on Butler, who’d already been forced to the right corner of his backcourt. Succumbing to the pressure of the Wesley Matthews/Kyle Korver double team, Butler tried to throw it back to Goran Dragic. The ball ended up, instead, in the hands of Brook Lopez after ricocheting off the backboard. Lopez converted an easy layup to bring the Bucks within 2 points.

Replays suggested, however, that Butler had already stepped out of bounds before releasing the ball towards Dragic. He could also easily have been called for a traveling violation, but he wasn’t.

The Heat then called a timeout, with Butler getting fouled on the inbounds play. Butler missed one of his two free throws, keeping the Bucks within one possession. Goran Dragic was then adjudged to have fouled Khris Middleton on a 3-point attempt, and Middleton iced the 3 freebies to tie the scores up at 114 with 4.3 seconds left.

However, another needless foul by Giannis on Butler with the game clock expiring got the Heat out of jail. Butler converted both his free throws to win the game 116-114.

About the author

Amulya Shekhar

Amulya Shekhar

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Amulya Shekhar is a sports junkie who thrives on the thrills and frills of live sports action across basketball, football (the American variant works too), parkour, adventure sports. He believes sports connect us to our best selves, and he hopes to help people experience sports more holistically.

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