That’s not good anymore, is it? A day after the Miami Heat was soundly defeated by the Celtics in the first round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs, any last hope of a comeback—Jimmy Butler’s potential return from his knee injury—has most certainly been dashed.
This is due to the fact that Butler will not recover from his MCL injury from last week at any point during the first round, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic. Without Butler, the Heat fell at Boston on Sunday, 114-94, in a game that was far closer than its 20-point final score indicated.
During the contest, the Celts made 47.6% of their field goals and 44.9% of their three-pointers. The Celtics jumped out to a 34-point lead in the second half, and Miami never led throughout the contest.
It makes sense why the Heat were hoping Butler would return.
Nonetheless, Charania stated on FanDuel TV, “It’s crazy to me that Jimmy Butler played three quarters with, what I’m hearing, was a severe MCL sprain.” He won’t be returning to this series.
Jimmy Butler played three quarters despite what I’m now hearing was a serious MCL sprain, which strikes me as absurd. This series will not see him return.
Jimmy Butler Persisted Despite Excruciating Pain
Butler sustained the injury during the Sixers’ play-in game on Wednesday. As Kelly Oubre attempted to recover on defense toward the end of the first quarter, Butler leaked out for a fast-break opportunity and went up for a head fake. Oubre seemed to flail his knee out toward Butler, who landed awkwardly.
Butler immediately fell to the ground, gripping his knee. Butler continued to play the entire game, but after scoring seven points on two of four shots in the opening quarter, he finished with 19 points on five of eighteen shots.
Butler won’t be returning, but he should get credit for seeing the Sixers defeat through to the Miami Heat’s victory against the Bulls in the second East play-in.
“This is a rehab that will take one to two months, or at least one month,” Charania stated. Jimmy Butler is going to need to put some work on this. I find it quite impressive that he managed to play for three quarters despite this injury. In essence, they were able to identify it within the 12 hours following the game and knew what had happened to him. Fortunately for him, neither an ACL nor a meniscus was injured.
However, it remains highly uncertain whether he will be available for the postseason even if the Heat manage to progress in this first round. However, the more I hear about it and the more I consider it, the more I believe that he played through that.
According to SI.com, Adebayo stated, “They’re going to look at us and be like, `We can’t win because we don’t have Jimmy [Butler].” You have to play the game at the end of the day. You must compete outside of yourself.
From that vantage point, we are aware that coming into the game, some people will question and not believe in us. In that locker room, the men had faith. We always have a chance as long as the men in the locker room and the coaching staff have faith in us.
