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“What we’re seeing from Jimmy Butler – what we’ve been seeing for years, really, but especially tonight – is one of the greatest playoff performers of a generation. It’s almost beyond description the way he routinely finds a way to show up in the biggest spots and the biggest games, or at the very least it’s beyond analysis. We can sit here all day and talk about the ways Butler utilizes his strength and flexibility to work his way into the shots he wants, but at the end of the day a make is a make and the fact that Butler did something like follow up a 4-of-4 night from three in Game 3 with another barrage of jumpers is something you can only really chalk up to greatness. It’s not a mistake that his 22 in the first tied Dwyane Wade for the franchise high for points in a postseason quarter. Different players, but we’re talking the same status as near-mythic playoff abilities.

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“There’s no other way to say it than that everyone who watched this game, who watched Butler get to 56 on 19-of-28 shooting, saw one of the best postseason performances in the long, long history of the league.”