Ugly game, but not this: Butler returns & Miami Heat beats Knicks for 2-1 lead in series | Opinion

It got every-which-way ugly Saturday in the Miami Heat’s downtown bayside arena.

The Heat and New York Knicks both had a lousy time shooting in Game 3 of the playoffs. Credit great defense if it makes you feel better. Otherwise the two baskets were the size of those on the carnival midway, the hoops that take your money, the ones made discreetly smaller so you won’t win the giant stuffed panda.

And ugly got uglier late in the third quarter in a mini-melee under the visitors’ basket -- scaled-down reminiscent of that Heat-Knicks playoff brouhaha in 1998 when Jeff Van Gundy ended up on the hardwood holding desperately on to the pistoning leg of Alonzo Mourning.

Cody Zeller shoving down Julius Randle started it this time and in the end three technical fouls had been handed out.

During the delay Jimmy Butler, back playing, killed time by doing a fun, loose-armed strut and then spinning a basketball on his finger.

“Much to do about nothing,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said as the refs convened -- meaning the delay, not Butler’s self-amusement. “It’s just a matter of keeping our emotions focused on winning.”

Done. What’s that they say about beauty (or in this case ugly) being in the eye of the beholder?

No complaint from the home team or fans. None at all.

Butler was back for the Heat and all was well even amid the clanked shots and vitriol.

“Playoff Jimmy” returned Saturday, and so did the Heat’s control of its NBA second-round playoff series.

No coincidence in those two things. Butler has carried the Heat this postseason, and he did so again in returning from one game’s absence due to a right-ankle injury to lead the team in Game 3 in downtown Miami.

“That’s our guy,” said teammate Kyle Lowry of Butler’s return. “He’s our star. He’s our franchise player.”

He is all that. He is the guy coach Erik Spoelstra has compared, reverently, to Dwyane Wade -- embodying not only clutch on the court, but heart and soul (a.k.a. Heat Culture) off it.

Saturday Butler burst out with a 10-point first quarter and finished with 28 to spark a 105-86 Heat victory and a 2-1 series lead heading to Monday night’s Game 4 back in the bayside arena.

“I was definitely out of rhythm, not gonna lie to you,” Butler said afterward. But the ankle held up? “I feel alright.”

Quite a weekend for a so-called “football town” -- with Heat-Knicks just the appetizer.

An Inter Miami home soccer match followed 30 minutes north Saturday night. The Marlins are out of town this weekend, but Sunday brings the Miami Grand Prix Formula One race at Hard Rock Stadium, and then the Florida Panthers hosing Toronto in their NHL playoff Game 3. in Sunrise.

It was an ugly game to start the weekend. Miami shot 39 percent from the field and New York 34. And, in a sport give to the 3-point shot, the teams were a combined 15-for-72 from beyond the arc.

“On both sides it wasn’t pretty,” said Kevin Love. “Wasn’t pretty for us shooting the ball.”

“We can win when we defend and miss shots,” Butler said. “This was one of those games.”

The Heat had the fast first quarter you’d expect from a home lift, taking it 29-21, with 10 Butler points a declarative his right ankle was good to go. He scored the Heat’s first points and was active throughout, including on the defensive end. Max Strus added nine points in the first.

The Heat maintained a 58-45 lead at the half despite a poor-shooting second quarter.

“Don’t let ‘em out-work us!” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau beseeched his players during a timeout.

Miami maintained its lead because the Knicks also were awry offensively in the second, although their 0-for-8 start on 3’s finally ended with a Josh Hart make beyond the arc. New York at the half was hitting 34 percent from the field and was 2-for-16 on 3’s.

“They can’t shoot worth a damn. It’s horrible,” lamented Knicks homer Stephen A. Smith of his team at halftime on the ABC telecast.

Miami led 87-70 after a third period punctuated by the mini-melee.

New York could not close it in the fourth.

Miami led by as many as 22 points and never trailed in a wire-to-wire victory.

The impact of Butler’s return cannot be overstated. Beyond the boxscore or points scored, the Heat had its leader back.

In his four years with Miami the Heat has been 37-42 in games Butler has missed, including 9-10 this season. The team is good enough to compensate and give it a go without their engine, but not to meet the demands of the postseason.

Without Butler -- and with starter Tyler Herro and key reserve Victor Oladipo both sidelined by injuries -- Miami looks a lot like a team of overachievers scrambling to get by on coaching guile and blue-collar hustle and want

In Game 2 this series, sans Butler, Miami set an NBA modern-era record with 74 points scored by undrafted players. It was 22 from Caleb Martin, 21 from Gabe Vincent and 17 by Max Strus, with the rest by Duncan Robinson and Haywood Highsmith.

That’s more admirable than it is sustainable.

Butler is the only man on this roster who can rise high with a 40-plus night when the moment and stage demand.

Miami has put itself in position to take a commanding 3-1 lead at home Monday. But a Knicks win to make to 2-2 would wrest back home-court edge and give NYK two of the last three at Madison Square Garden.

The building intrigue in a seven-game series is how each result can seem to change everything, both in mathematical likelihood and the feel of what becomes a two-week soap opera. It is why I prefer the series we see in the NBA, NHL and MLB to the one-and-done of the NCAA Tournament.

There are fluke results in March Madness. There are few of those, if any, over a seven-game grind.

As for that mathematical likelihood?

In NBA history overall, teams up 2-1 in games in a best-of-seven as Miami is now have won 232 of 302 all-time series, or 76.8 percent, putting the teams in a 1-2 hole at 23.2 percent.

In Heat history, Miami is 17-4 advancing from 2-1 up, or 81 percent, and only 4-6 advancing (40 percent) when down 1-2.

That is what Saturday meant.

Jimmy Butler returned, and so -- for now, ugly or not -- did the Heat’s command of this series.