It wasn’t until Jimmy Butler made the play he shouldn’t, the one pass he couldn’t, that you sensed the end was finally coming for the Miami Heat. You’d sensed it so many times before this spring you wanted to discard it even then Monday night.
Their end first seemed certain after that play-in loss to Atlanta way back in early April, then again in getting the draw against top-seed Milwaukee. The tortuous finish of Game 6 against Boston was surely not just the end of their season but one to hauntingly hover over South Florida sports like Banquo’s ghost for eternity.
So, even when Butler drove the lane Monday night with the Heat trailing a point, even when he stopped and threw the ball into the arms of Denver’s Kentavious Caldwell-Pope with 24.7 seconds left, the first thought was how they would manage to escape this one.
