Butler’s shot wasn’t dropping, so he made critical play after critical play down the stretch of a tight game. When his shot isn’t going down, he finds other ways to make winning plays.īutler’s shot wasn’t dropping, so he got to the line, where he shot 16-of-18 - that’s 89 percent for the students in the back. That’s the type of night it was for Butler, who finished with 30 points on a pedestrian 7-of-17 from the field. He throws his hands up as if to say, “about time.” Only this time, he pulls up from exactly the foul line, and only this time, it’s nothing but net. He runs the exact same play but from further above the three-point line, taking the same screen, blowing by another two defenders and pulling up for the same mid-range jump shot. On the very next Wolves’ possession, Butler corrects his mistake. It’s too strong and comes right off back iron. He takes a Taj Gibson screen at the top of the three-point line, splits Nik Stauskas and DeMarre Carroll and pulls up for a 13-foot jump shot. Butler has the ball in his hands and is surveying the landscape.

There are just under seven minutes left in the second quarter against the Nets. “He really doesn’t give a shit.” Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images “He just kinda lets the game come to him. “He’s never been a guy who’s seeking shots or kinda going out there playing with his own agenda,” Wolves big man Cole Aldrich tells SB Nation. But if you talk to his coach and teammates, you begin to understand that scoring is the absolute last thing on Jimmy’s mind.

It might be difficult to wrap your head around the idea that Jimmy Buckets doesn’t actually care about getting buckets. “When you got a person like that who’s a walking bucket,” he says, “it’s obviously very comfortable to have.” And he’s asserted himself a lot more in terms of the scoring.” Wolves head coach Tom Thibodeau attributed Butler’s scoring spike to bringing out the best in his teammates: “That was the best way for him to get everyone else comfortable.

Jimmy butler stts