Jimmy Butler fights through turned ankle for buzzer-beater, Bulls win
The most successful recent incarnations of the Chicago Bulls have been tough teams full of key players willing to work through injuries and grind out results. While that reputation has ebbed a little in the two seasons since Tom Thibodeau left the team, the approach has persisted. And star Jimmy Butler offered one of the best examples of this Bulls toughness on Wednesday night against the Brooklyn Nets.
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Butler was already in the midst of a fine second half when he hurt his ankle with just over five minutes remaining in regulation at the United Center. Down 93-88 at the time, the Bulls saw Butler forced to the bench after he missed a shot and appeared to fall on or near the defending Randy Foye on his way down. It was a tough moment for Chicago, which had seen Dwayne Wade go to the locker room just three minutes prior thanks to vision issues related to a migraine headache. With few other capable scorers handy — only Robin Lopez joined those two in double figures on Wednesday — the Bulls seemed in very poor shape to come back against the Nets.
Thankfully, Butler returned less than a minute later in even better form than when he left. Trailing 97-90 with 3:01 on the clock, the Bulls closed the night on an 11-2 run that included nine points from Butler. The final two came on this tie-breaking buzzer-beater that handed Chicago a 101-99 win:
Butler was incredible on Wednesday, scoring 27 of his 40 points (14-of-29 FG) after halftime and adding 11 rebounds, four assists, and four steals.
Wade clearly appreciated the effort in his absence:
A photo posted by dwyanewade (@dwyanewade) on Dec 28, 2016 at 8:52pm PST
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Truth be told, this game was not an especially well played contest outside of the star performances from Butler and Nets center Brook Lopez (33 points on a career-best 5-of-6 from three-point range), who offered up the game-tying bucket on a nice dunk around and over his twin brother Robin with 12 seconds left. Yet that’s part of why Butler’s game-winning play stood out so much — this night called out for one player to step up and take control of things. The opportunity was there, and he absolutely seized it.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
