In the NBA Finals, Jimmy Butler is wrestling with a basketball god, and that’s a tussle Nikola Jokic is destined to win.
“It’s never over. Nobody is ever counted out,” Butler vowed Saturday, with Miami trailing the Nuggets 1-0 in this best-of-seven series. “Once you get to four, it’s over with. So down 0-1, we know we are going to get to four.”
The Nuggets, however, have the shorter path and more routes to get to four victories, because Jokic is a sorcerer who sees a game beyond a muggle’s imagination. And the Heat, as even coach Erik Spoelstra admits, has no solid answers for Joker’s genius.
Butler is no slouch. He has carried Miami, the eighth seed from the East, to the NBA Finals. By any measure, including the voting results from the All-NBA teams, Jimmy Buckets was among the top 10 players in the league this season.
Jokic, however, is transforming the way basketball is played before our eyes, in a manner Magic Johnson and only a handful of others have done before him. This championship series is his coming-out party, where Joker can lead the Nuggets to the first championship in franchise history and stake a claim to being among the top 20 players of all time.
The NBA is a superstar-driven league. Butler versus Jokic? It’s a mismatch. Advantage, Nuggets.
With all due respect to John Elway, the best pro athlete to wear a Denver uniform is Jokic. This playoff run has made anyone who questioned the legitimacy of his most valuable player awards look silly.
“The MVPs are real. All the narratives are silly. He’s averaging a triple-double,” coach Michael Malone said, after Denver swept away the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. “Do you see any stat-padding out there? Give him his damn respect.”
Butler won’t allow the Heat to surrender in this series. But it’s hard to fathom how Miami can get to four victories without Butler giving four super-human performances. When he plays like an all-star instead of a Hall of Famer, the Heat seems doomed to lose, almost without fail.
Since qualifying for the playoff field, Miami’s record is 12-6. In the dozen victories, Butler has averaged 31.1 points, 7.0 rebounds and 6.7 assists, while shooting 49.4% from the field. But in the six defeats, he has been a notch below unbeatable, averaging 22.0 points, 6.8 rebounds and 6.3 assists on 44.2% shooting.
What Butler has done is worthy of a standing ovation. But it’s not good enough to beat Jokic and the Nuggets. Why? The most amazing aspect of this 13-3 run in the playoffs by Denver: Joker never has a bad game.
He’s averaging 29.8 points, 13.1 points and 10.5 assists. The Nuggets own an 8-1 record when Jokic registers a triple-double.
“A triple double machine,” Spoelstra said.
Back in the day, the Detroit Pistons created a set of defensive rules designed to slow Michael Jordan. But there are no Joker Rules. No matter how much a coach as savvy as Spoelstra studies the videotape, it’s difficult to devise a solid scouting report on Jokic because of his “ability to create something off script.”
And that’s the real basketball genius of Jokic. He’s a sorcerer. Joker sees things before they happen.
While three losses provide a small sample size, it suggests maybe the best way to thwart Denver might be to stand back and allow Jokic to score. His scoring average balloons to 42.0 points in defeat.
During the Nuggets’ 104-93 victory in the series-opener, Butler scored only 13 points and needed 14 field-goal attempts to do it, because he never got to the free-throw line.
When the bright lights of the Finals were switched on, was Butler too passive?
“Not at all,” he insisted. “I think I played basketball the right way.”
His commitment to basketball purity is admirable. Butler, however, is the head of the snake. Without his bite, Miami doesn’t have enough venom to hurt Denver.
The Heat need Butler to play hero ball to beat the Nuggets four times. In Game 2, you can bet he will get downhill and relentlessly attack whatever defense Denver throws at him.
As magnificent as Jimmy Buckets can be, he’s not Larry Bird or LeBron James. And never will be.
But know what this NBA Finals will reveal to everyone who has been blissfully ignorant to the basketball magic being performed in the Rocky Mountains?
Jokic is ready to take his place alongside Tim Duncan and Hakeem Olajuwon as one of the game’s all-time greats.
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