Smooth Performance of the Night: Butler proclaims himself, proves himself unguardable
Jimmy Butler did a nice job summing up his 2014-15 season on Monday.
The Milwaukee Bucks boasted the league's second-best defense during the regular season. They have numerous quick, long, interchangeable defenders to throw at opponents. And Butler rendered them helpless Monday, scoring at will in a game in which scoring was at a serious premium.
One of the leading candidates for the league's Most Improved Player award, Butler has spent the season showing that his offensive game has caught up to his elite defensive reputation, proving himself an elite two-way threat worthy of a maximum contract this summer. And the Chicago Bulls' best player.
Bulls better break out that maximum qualifying offer for Butler.
— Nate Duncan (@NateDuncanNBA) April 21, 2015
Monday wasn't necessarily anything new, but it came on a grand stage and with several exclamation points. That included 14 fourth-quarter points with three clutch triples as the Bulls closed out a tight, ugly game in which Butler was the only player on either team to shoot better than 50 percent, save for Aaron Brooks, who went 2-of-3.
There was the stat line - he scored 31 points with nine rebounds and two assists while shooting 10-of-19 from the floor - the victory in the ledger, the highlight-reel block and the enormous game-capping jam.
Noah on Butler's dunk over Pachulia: "He was really feeling himself after that."
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) April 21, 2015
Butler said after the jam that his man was too little to guard him, but he was checked by Khris Middleton on the dunk, Michael Carter-Williams for long stretches and finished the dunk on Zaza Pachulia. Nobody could guard him Monday - big, small, fast, slow - because Butler's versatile offensive game has become impossible to contain when he has his shot and his drives both working.
The Bucks need to find someone who can slow him down as the series goes back to Milwaukee or it won't be coming back to Chicago.