The Heat won Game 1 for myriad reasons, but one happens to matter more than the rest: They employ Jimmy Butler, who scored 41 points and attempted 18 free throws against a Celtics defense that needed key minutes from Payton Pritchard and Daniel Theis because Marcus Smart and Al Horford did not play. Boston looked predictably vulnerable in the fourth quarter, as Butler summoned Pritchard into one ball screen after another, a deliberate tactic that consistently manufactured quality looks.
For one night, that strategy was a solution. But, assuming Smart and Horford eventually recover from a foot sprain and health and safety protocols, Miami won’t be able to eat with it all series. Boston will get healthy and adjust its coverages. (Butler may still draw fouls and hit contested jump shots because that’s what great offensive players do, but they won’t come by way of him repeatedly asking Smart’s man to set a pick.)
The series opener wasn’t defined by that action, either; even in the middle of his own methodical onslaught, Butler made a curious decision with a 13-point lead and about five minutes left in the fourth quarter. After Jaylen Brown missed on a putback dunk try that sent Bam Adebayo sprawling to the floor, Max Strus grabbed the rebound and quickly tossed it to Butler, who hurried up the floor toward a couple backpedaling Celtics and, with 19 seconds on the shot clock, pulled up from the right elbow.
