Here’s the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Jimmy Butler, Kyle Lowry, P.J. Tucker and the Miami Heat:
The Heat’s No. 1 seed paid worthwhile dividends, too. On Sunday, they’ll open play against a proper eighth seed in Cleveland or Atlanta, depending on their remaining play-in game. Advance and they’d get Philadelphia or Toronto rather than the expected Milwaukee.
The Heat added pit bulls like Lowry and Tucker for this time of year and was open to the development of little-knowns like Max Strus and Caleb Martin. They still don’t have a top-10 player on their team. But they have a few in the tier below that. Enough?
So much still centers on Butler.
“We’ve been a great team all year long,’’ he said. “But now’s the time we talk about. When we had this team meeting, a lot of championship talk happened, but I really, really, really think we have a good shot at this.”
All those players with rings in the team meeting, Butler isn’t one of them. It’s that time of year. He says what several players around the league are this week: “We’re going to find a way to get 16 wins.”
