Is Jimmy Butler playing tonight against the Nuggets? Latest injury update on the Miami star ahead of matchup (11th June 2023)
Jimmy Butler is set to play in Game 5 of the 2023 NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and the Denver Nuggets. The Miami Heat are down 3-1 in the series and are facing elimination.
When asked about his mindset going forward, Butler was quick to say he is ready for the challenge.
"We didn’t come this far to stop playing now."
Jimmy Butler has been the best player on the Miami Heat so far. Butler has been averaging 21.8 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 6.8 assists. Butler was also the leading scorer for the Heat in both Game 3 and Game 4. It is important for him to continue to be the leader of the Heat despite the pressure.
First to four. https://t.co/QMZSnn6bO6
Butler's approach to Game 5 is simply to play hard till the buzzer and live with the results. Butler backs himself and his teammates to win the game.
Tristan Thompson shares how the Cleveland Cavaliers came back from down 3-1
Teams that go down 3-1 in the NBA Finals are an all-time 35-1. Yes, only one team has ever come back from that deficit and it's the Cleveland Cavaliers. They didn't just come back from down 3-1, they did do against the best regular season team ever, the 72-9 Golden State Warriors.
While all the headlines belong to LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson played an important role on the Cavaliers as their primary center and an elite offensive rebounder. Thompson recently shared the mindset behind the comeback. Thompson insisted that the Cavaliers were beating themselves.
"I think what was key was leading up to that game 4 loss because Game 3 was in Cleveland, we won that game, and Game 4 we lost to you guys in Cleveland, making us down 3-1, but the way we lost that game was very simple… We thought we beat ourself that game."
Thompson also detailed the approach that Lebron James took to being the leader of the team.
“So I remember after that game Bron sent a text ‘Listen, don’t come on the plane if you don’t think we can come back and win this series.’ Because we felt like, even though we lost, it was a winnable game.
"We know these boys do not want to go back to Cleveland, nobody wants to take a 6 hour flight from San Francisco all the way back to Cleveland, Ohio. So we said ‘If we win game five, this is going 7 games’”
To perform at the level that the Cavaliers did in Games 5, 6, and 7 is something no other team has ever accomplished when facing elimination down 3-1.