Jimmy Butler: Bam Adebayo will be the 'reason why we win a championship'

Butler had high praise for Adebayo ahead of Game 3.

(Photo: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)

The Miami Heat evened out the 2023 NBA Finals against the Denver Nuggets with their nail-biting 111-108 Game 2 victory Sunday evening. They became the first team to beat Denver inside Ball Arena since March 30, snapping the Nuggets’ seven-game win streak.

Miami also earned its first victory against Denver in Colorado since Nov. 30, 2016, and its first since entirely since Aug. 1, 2020 — Miami’s first game inside the infamous NBA Bubble.

The Heat now essentially enter a best-of-five with the Nuggets with three of the next possible five games inside Kaseya Center, where they are 6-2 these playoffs.

Though the biggest reason for the position they’re in this series is because of center Bam Adebayo, and Jimmy Butler echoed his importance on both ends ahead of Game 3 on Tuesday.

“Bam’s been playing well this entire playoffs — for sure this series — and this one, he’s got the toughest matchup by far (Nikola Jokic) on the defensive side of the ball,” Butler told reporters Tuesday. “He plays with so much energy, he never takes a possession or a play off, so you gotta really respect that.

“On the offensive end, he’s doing everything for us. We need him to continually be that. He has been that for us all year long … He’s going to be the reason why we win a championship.”

I don’t think it’s much of a question that Adebayo has been Miami’s best player so far in these NBA Finals.

In two games, he’s averaging 23.5 points, 11.0 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.0 block on 53.8 percent shooting and 57.0 percent true-shooting. In Game 1, he had a team-high 26 points, 13 rebounds and five assists on 13-of-25 shooting.

It’s not just that — as Butler mentioned, Adebayo’s shouldering the responsibility of defending Jokic. Not only that, he’s boxing a plethora of players out to prevent Denver rebounds, freeing up Butler and Miami’s other shot creators with myriad screens, decision-making in the short-roll and in the high-post, pushing the pace off rebounds as well as picking his spots to be aggressive in semi-transition and in the half-court.

While Adebayo has been subject to plenty of criticism throughout his NBA career, we know his true value isn’t quite quantifiable within the box score because of the responsibility he withholds night-to-night — especially to the, dare I say, “untrained eye.”

Right now, Adebayo’s doing it all for Miami against a two-time MVP and arguably the best player in the world in Jokic. He’s even held his own against Jamal Murray and Denver’s other perimeter players in certain cross-matches or switches, but he’s mainly tasked with mitigating whatever damage Jokic provides.

While the famed “Joker” is still averaging 34-11-9 these Finals, Adebayo is doing as good of a job as you could ask in making it tougher on Jokic to drive, establish deep seels within 10 feet, rebound, shoot open jumpers, etc.

So Butler, who tallied 21 points while taking the primary assignment of defending Jamal Murray in Game 2 on a bum ankle, might be correct: If Miami can limit Jokic’s productivity in some way, the Heat could win their fourth NBA Title in franchise history.

And from what we’ve seen through a pair of contests, it’ll be because of Bam Adebayo.