Podcast: Jimmy’s genius, Spoelstra’s mastery and the Heat’s all-time upset in Milwaukee

Jimmy Butler’s postseason brilliance was already well established before the Miami Heat faced the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the 2023 NBA playoffs, but now the star forward has a new crowning achievement.

The Heat, which had to survive the play-in rounds just to make the NBA playoffs as the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference, knocked off the league-best Bucks and it only took five games.

On a new episode of the Heat Check podcast, David Wilson and Barry Jackson, a columnist for the Miami Herald, freak out about the Heat’s incredible first-round upset, Butler’s historic run and Miami’s impending second-round series with the Knicks.

The only place they could start, though, was with Butler, who followed up a 56-performance in Game 4 on Monday with 42 in the Heat’s 128-126 overtime win in Game 5 on Wednesday in Milwaukee.

Butler is leading the playoffs with 37.6 points per game and no one else for Miami is averaging even 18. It was about as close to a one-man show as an NBA team can get and still the Heat beat the Bucks, 4-1, by winning twice at the Fiserv Forum.

Where does it rank among the great series in Miami history? Although the stakes weren’t as high as they were in some of Dwyane Wade’s or LeBron James’ greatest moments, Butler’s was still probably the greatest, Wilson and Jackson argue.

The Heat’s upset, on the whole, also has an argument to be one of the great postseason accomplishments in the history of South Florida sports, with guard Tyler Herro getting knocked out of the series with a broken hand way back in Game 1 on April 16.

Now it’s time to party like it’s 1999 because Miami is headed up to New York on Sunday for Game 1 of Round 2, as the Heat and Knicks renew their long dormant rivalry. They’re meeting in the playoffs for the first time since 2012 and the first time in the second round since 2000, when they met in the postseason for a fourth straight year.

Suddenly, Miami, which was one loss away from missing the playoffs altogether back on April 14, is four wins away from a return trip to the NBA Conference Finals and is the smallest underdog of the second round so far.

As always, thanks for listening and please continue to rate, review and subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.