Jimmy Butler broke the Pacers’ hearts for the 3rd time this season
If the Indiana Pacers never see Jimmy Butler again, it’ll be too soon.
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After sealing two Chicago Bulls wins over the Pacers earlier this season — one with a game-winning block of All-Star counterpart Paul George in November, another with a game-winning tip-in and another strip of George in December — the Bulls’ maxed-out main man once again ahd the opportunity to drive a dagger through the hearts of Indiana and its fans. And once again, when Chicago needed him most, Jimmy got buckets:
With just 19 seconds remaining in regulation and the game knotted at 96, Butler dribbled up top near the half-court line, tracked by George. Bulls power forward Nikola Mirotic raced over to set a screen, but slipped it, popping out beyond the arc. Both George, a step behind the play after preparing to navigate a screen that never come, and George Hill, who’d been guarding the Montenegrin shooter and overpursued a step too far, sagged away from Butler.
Paul George was on Butler. George thought Mirotić was coming for the screen BUT did not get touched and lost Butler on the drive
— Candace Buckner (@CandaceDBuckner) March 30, 2016
Problem is, George Hill didn’t close out on Butler when Paul George dropped out of the play. Bad defense
— Candace Buckner (@CandaceDBuckner) March 30, 2016
Neither of the other two Pacers on the strong side, center Ian Mahinmi and swingman Solomon Hill, could react to the emergency in time, allowing Butler — with the game on the line — to step smoothly and comfortably into an uncontested 10-foot jumper. He made it, giving Chicago a two-point lead with 3.7 seconds remaining.
Indy had a foul to give and no idea what they were doing on D.
— Haralabos Voulgaris (@haralabob) March 30, 2016
After a Frank Vogel timeout and Butler taking Chicago’s last pre-penalty foul, the Pacers had one last shot to equalize or come away with the win …
… but a C.J. Miles 29-footer came up short, securing a 98-96 Bulls win that snapped a four-game Chicago losing streak and could prove pivotal in keeping alive the Bulls’ slim chances of earning an Eastern Conference playoff spot in the closing weeks of the season.
With the win, Chicago improves to 37-37, bringing them within two games of Indiana for the East’s eighth and final playoff spot. (The combination of Indy’s loss and the Detroit Pistons’ 88-82 win over the Kevin Durant-less Oklahoma City Thunder pushed 40-35 Detroit into seventh place and dropped 39-35 Indiana to eighth.) Moreover, the win gives the Bulls a 3-1 win in their head-to-head season series with the Pacers, meaning that if the two teams wind up tied, Chicago owns the No. 1 tiebreaker for postseason status.
But while it was Butler (14 points, four rebounds, three assists, two steals) who turned out the Pacers’ lights, it was the Bulls’ bench that carried Chicago to a much, much-needed win.
Mirotic was a monster, giving Indiana’s frontcourt defenders problems on the perimeter and lighting the Pacers up for a game-high 28 points, 15 of which came in the second quarter. He drilled seven 3-pointers, including a critical make that knotted the score at 96 with 2:19 remaining in the game, setting the stage for Butler’s winner; he also added 10 rebounds, two assists and a steal in 36 1/2 critical minutes off the bench.
He wasn’t the only Chicago reserve to make a major impact. Guards Aaron Brooks (seven points, four assists) and E’Twaun Moore (five points, four rebounds, one steal, one block) offered a backcourt boost on a night where Derrick Rose struggled mightily with a hyperextended left elbow. First-round pick Bobby Portis chipped in nine points in 10 minutes, and unheralded rookie center Cristiano Felicio — a 6-foot-10, 275-pound load in the middle, who had only played 163 minutes entering Tuesday — helped turn the tide in Chicago’s favor early late in the third quarter and early in the fourth, scoring eight points on just three shots and gobbling up five rebounds in only 6 1/2 second-half minutes. The Bulls outscored Indiana by five points with the 23-year-old Brazilian in the paint, and they were five important ones.
For the Pacers, the loss continued a season-long trend of blowing winnable games in the closing stages:
That was Pacers’ 20th loss in games in which they’d led in the 4th quarter – Most in NBA. Win 5 of those & they’re a 4 seed, 1 out of 3rd.
— Tim Donahue (@TimDonahue8p9s) March 30, 2016
The Pacers missed multiple clean looks in the fourth quarter that could have put Chicago away. George — who hurt his left ankle late in the third quarter when Feliciano landed on it after contesting a drive — went scoreless in the fourth, authoring a rough end to a game that saw him score 20 points, grab nine rebounds, dish five assists and snag four steals.
Indiana’s got a fairly favorable closing slate, playing four games at home and four on the road with six of the eight coming against lottery-bound competition. But after splitting their last 10 games and often looking underwhelming on the offensive end, nothing’s guaranteed down the stretch for Vogel’s club, and they really could have used a season-series-evening win over their Central Division rivals.
And yet, despite notching a life-preserver of a win, the Bulls didn’t seem especially thrilled after the victory, according to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune:
Maybe it’s the fact Derrick Rose wore an ice pack on a bruised left elbow that needed X-rays, which were negative.
Maybe it’s the fact the typically ebullient Taj Gibson wasn’t in the postgame locker room after sitting out the second half with a rib contusion. Maybe it’s because Jimmy Butler, who now is battling a sore back, wore a look of exhaustion.
But Tuesday night represented an unusually subdued postgame locker room after a game-winning shot. […]
“Excited to get a win,” a quiet Butler insisted. “I know everybody plays hard, all they got every night. And when it comes up short, it hurts. It was big for us to get a win with guys nicked up, hurting. To pull out a win like this on the road against a playoff team is big for us. Guys are tired. That’s that.”
It might not be the most stirring rah-rah speech you’ve ever heard, but it’s what the Bulls had after grinding out a had-to-have-it win, living to fight another day, and snatching victory away from their neighbors to the south yet again.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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