NBA Finals 2020: Jimmy Butler gives promising injury update after Miami Heat lose in Game 1
Watch Game 2 of the NBA Finals live on Sky Sports Arena from 1:45am in the early hours of Saturday morning
Thursday 1 October 2020 10:34, UK
Jimmy Butler has no intention of letting injury slow him down as he looks to help the Miami Heat hit back after their defeat to the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
The Heat star turned his left ankle shortly before half-time and appeared to be hobbling when he returned to the floor after the break.
Butler finished with a team-high 23 points as well as chipping in with five assists and two rebounds on a night when Miami lost both Bam Adebayo (left shoulder strain) and Goran Dragic (left foot) to injuries.
"It's a little bit sore, I'll be okay, some treatment and get ready to go again," Butler said post-game.
"I think I've got to be ready to go so I'll see how it feels tomorrow but I'm going to be fine. Just take what the game gives me for the most part, I still have a lot of belief in all of my teammates. I will continually play that way.
"Maybe try to score a little bit more but I've still got to make sure that everybody else is getting their touches and getting the shots they need because we've been playing this way all year long and that's our formula to success."
Dragic was ruled out for the entire second half with his injury, while Adebayo, who had a career-best 32 points and 14 rebounds in Game 6 against the Boston Celtics, was hurt while colliding with Dwight Howard during the third quarter.
The latter's absence comes as major concern as the Heat look to contain Anthony Davis, who dominated with 34 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
"I don't have any more news on Goran or Bam," said head coach Erik Spoelstra. "But regardless the Lakers set the tone, the force, the physicality for the majority of the game and they just took control and we weren't able to get it back.
"It's high-level competition so you have to do things with force and detail and it's the cliché that every single possession counts and there were too many possessions where it was a poor offensive possession or a miss that led to a couple of poor possessions defensively, or vice versa.
"Those stacked on top of each other, it can get away from you pretty quickly against a very good team like this. We're much better than we showed tonight. You do have to credit the Lakers."
LeBron James produced 25 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists, with the Lakers cruising to a 22-7 run early in the third quarter before entering the fourth with a 93-67 advantage.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope chipped in with 13 points, while Danny Green had 11 and Alex Caruso 10 for the Lakers, who had trailed by as many as 13 points in the opening quarter.
"This is a very highly skilled team, they have guys at the point of the attack in James and Davis that are going to break your defense down, can make plays over the top so you have to be on a string and you can't start to make things up," added Spoelstra.
"You have to be extremely disciplined and stay with it. There are too many times that they got us out of the typical things we do, but that's a big time credit to them."
