Enough fitting in: Miami needs Jimmy Butler to stand out as only he can

Jimmy Butler likes to involve his teammates, but if Miami has any shot at a comeback, he has to try and reach a ceiling no other Heat player can.

Down 3-1 to the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals, the Miami Heat’s unexpected run appears to be reaching its endpoint. Injuries have caused the offense to sputter, specifically in Game 4 with just 96 points on 42.3 percent shooting. The dominance of LA’s dynamic duo has brought with it a comical back-and-forth for what look to be pending Finals MVP honors.

35 teams have faced an identical deficit on the same stage. Just one overcame the odds to emerge champions. If Miami is to double that exclusive club, it’ll have to begin at the top with the player who does his best to blend in amongst the crowd yet possesses the talent to stand atop them all.

A team doesn’t rank No. 1 in passes per game during these playoffs without full buy-in from their best player. Jimmy Butler has deflected praise throughout this magical run, turning it towards teammates he tries so hard to empower on the court.

“We celebrate every win,” Butler said after practice last Monday. “But when somebody else has a great night that nobody expected, I love it. I really do.”

There are certainly worse issues than a star who’s instinctual preference is to ensure those around him are well-fed. A spread offense with six players averaging double figures in these playoffs is what helped bring the Heat to this point.

This isn’t the time for silver linings. Miami’s odds are longer than ever. Overcoming them will require following the plan laid down for them four years ago the best they can.

The Cleveland Cavaliers needed a little bit of everything to take down the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 Finals. We can argue the importance of Draymond Green’s Game 5 suspension or the injury to Andrew Bogut. But what the Dubs built, the Cavs ultimately snatched away on the backs of their two stars.

LeBron James and Kyrie combined for 81 points in Game 5 to send the series back to Cleveland. The former followed it up with another 41-point outing in Game 6. The duo’s Game 7 heroics at both ends were etched into history to complete the comeback.

Miami’s lone win in these Finals came thanks to a similar feat from Butler, who became just the third player in NBA history to register a 40-point triple-double in the Finals. The recipe for championship success is deeply layered, but it begins with how much of the overall task is covered by the go-to guy.

Butler’s 40 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists in Game 3 made up for the absence of Goran Dragic and Bam Adebayo, capitalizing on Anthony Davis’ struggles amid foul trouble. It mitigated the shooting woes of Jae Crowder, Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson, who combined to go 7-of-25 from beyond the arc.

Replicating that all-time performance is hard on its own merit. The difficulty rose considerably once LA opted to guard Butler with Davis in Game 4. Butler was unable to get to his spots and became passive as a result, finishing with nine assists but shooting 3-of-10 for just nine second-half points after posting 11 on 5-of-5 shooting in the first quarter alone.

It sure would be nice if Miami could rely on the 19.9 points per game Dragic was averaging in these playoffs or pencil in Herro for more than 20 a night. The former is injured and unlikely to return and the latter has done so just once in these Finals, shooting 37.9 percent from the field and 32.0 from three through four games.

Robinson has converted only 30.8 percent of his triples in these Finals. Adebayo’s scoring is hit or miss, and he’s only just made a recovery from the neck injury that kept him out more than two games.

“Physically still not a hundred percent,” Adebayo said after Game 4. “But I was moving well and getting back to a hundred percent.”

Butler has to assume command of the ship because only he possesses the talent necessary to steer it where it wants to go. The Lakers’ defense might eliminate that possibility altogether, but nobody would fault Jimmy for stumbling down the only hypothetical path that helps the Heat pull off the near impossible.

“He did that in a brilliant way [in Game 3], and he’ll likely have to do something very similar to that again,” Erik Spoelstra said of Butler. “For us to be able to accomplish what we want to accomplish, you can’t just be normal. You have to be extraordinary.”