Jimmy Butler Shades Lakers Over Last Year’s NBA Finals Matchup

Jimmy Butler met LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2020 NBA Finals. Well, the kid from Akron earned his fourth ring inside the NBA bubble in Orlando. Lakers players did an amazing job and returned home with a title. Head coach Frank Vogel was satisfied with the 4-2 series. In Game 1 of the series, Miami lost Goran Dragic and Bam Adebayo to injuries. These two had key roles on the roster.

Adebayo missed two games of the series and Dragic missed four. The Heat couldn’t find a solution for the packed Lakers roster. These injuries made things even worse. In an interview with GQ, Butler said he believes that Miami should have won the series even with the injured players.

“We still think that we should have won—and we were down a couple of guys,” Butler said.

It was definitely a bold move. Los Angeles had a great performance in the Western Conference playoffs, winning 12 of 15 games. Butler’s team was considered the underdog even before their key players sustained injuries. Now they have a chance to prove that they played better than the Lakers in 2021. Is that even possible?

Miami brought back most of the roster they had in 2020.

Jimmy Butler didn’t defeat the Lakers in the NBA Finals

Butler is a competitive player which explains his attitude. Maybe Miami would have played better had Dragic and Adebayo stayed healthy. But, this doesn’t change the fact that the Lakers were just too much for Miami. LeBron’s team already had a lead when Dragic sustained his injury in the second quarter of Game 1 of the series. This lead got even bigger later in the series.

Butler had great performance. He had a 40-point performance in Game 3 of the series. Something changed throughout the series. His performance dropped. Los Angeles defeated Butler in Game 6 and Butler only scored 12 points in 45 minutes on the floor. He wouldn’t do better in Game 7.

LeBron and his Lakers teammates are having an excellent season. They have a 11-3 record and this gives them a solid chance to win back-to-back titles.