'You’re in trouble': Could Jimmy Butler's Game 3 classic turn the NBA finals?

Things looked plenty grim for the Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat entering Sunday night’s third game of the NBA finals.

Related: Heat hit back against Lakers in Game 3 behind Butler's brilliant triple-double

Even at full strength, the improbable Eastern Conference champions had gone off as longshots against a Los Angeles Lakers team fronted by two of the five best players in the world in LeBron James and Anthony Davis. But after losing their second- and third-best players to injuries and getting mostly overwhelmed in the first two games of the best-of-seven championship series, Miami were all but written off entirely.

As Butler soberly assessed after Friday night’s Game 2 loss pushed the Heat to within two games of elimination: “We got to play damn near perfect in order to beat those guys.”

On Sunday night, he took it upon himself to do just that.

Schedule

Best-of-seven series. All times Eastern.

Wed 30 Sept Game 1: Lakers 116, Heat 98

Fri 2 Oct Game 2: Lakers 124, Heat 114

Sun 4 Oct Game 3: Heat 115, Lakers 104

Tue 6 Oct Game 4: Lakers at Heat, 9pm (ABC)

Fri 9 Oct Game 5: Heat at Lakers, 9pm (ABC)

Sun 11 Oct Game 6: Lakers at Heat, 7.30pm (ABC)*

Tue 13 Oct Game 7: Heat at Lakers, 9pm (ABC)*

*if necessary

With his team’s back to the wall, the Texas native spun one of the great individual performances in NBA finals history, pouring in 40 points to go with 13 assists and 11 rebounds in a 115-104 victory Miami simply had to have.

After rattling home a driving lay-up in the closing minutes that turned back LA’s last-gasp rally and effectively sealed the game, the 6ft 7in swingman delivered a message to LeBron as the teams went to their benches for a timeout: “You’re in trouble.”

At the post-game Zoom press conference, Butler told reporters that James had said the same thing to him in the first quarter and that his parrying it back to the four-time MVP was a declaration of intent: that Miami are not just there to forestall the Laker coronation but to take a flamethrower to it.

“That’s competition at its finest,” the 31-year-old Butler said. “I think LeBron has got the best of me way too many times. I respect the guy for it, but this is a different time now, a different group of guys that I have around me, and we are here to win, we are here to compete. But we’re not going to lay down, we’re going to fight back in this thing, even it up 2-2.”

Butler scored or assisted on 73 of Miami’s 115 points, one off the NBA finals single-game record. He also became the first player ever to finish with more points, rebounds and assists than LeBron in a finals game. According to game score, a statistic which accounts for everything a player does, it was the second-best NBA finals game by any player in the nearly four decades since complete box scores have been available.

“How else do you say it other than Jimmy effing Butler,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “This was a very urgent game, and he was doing it on both ends of the court. Just put his imprint on every important part of the game.”

He added: “It’s really hard to analyze or describe Jimmy until you actually feel him between the four lines. He’s a supreme, elite competitor and we needed it.”

Need it they did. James’s size and strength and Davis’s mobility and versatility were on full display in Wednesday’s lopsided Game 1, where the duo combined for 59 points and the Lakers led by as many as 32. Same with Friday night’s second encounter, where they accounted for 65 in the absence of injured Heat starters Bam Adebayo (shoulder) and Goran Dragić (left foot). It became clear that even slowing the Lakers’ march to a record-tying 17th NBA championship was going to require something extraordinary. Fortunately for Miami, they had just the thing.

“I wasn’t surprised,” said Miami rookie Tyler Herro, who chipped in 17 points in Sunday’s Game 3 win. “We know how Jimmy is in these moments, and the world has seen what Jimmy Butler is capable of and he just played tremendous for us.

“He did everything, obviously. Ran the offense all the way through him, made play after play, bucket after bucket. And defensively guarding LeBron, making it tough on him, and just being a leader out there and we were all following him. Obviously, we’re going to need that from him for the next three.”

Heat power forward Jae Crowder, who played alongside Butler at Marquette University during the 2010-11 season, echoed that sentiment.

“He’s always been the type of guy you can depend on,” said Crowder, who finished with 12 points and eight rebounds. “Whatever you need – not just scoring. He can get a big rebound or big foul or big charge. In college he was that guy. Whatever you need him to do he’ll come through. He’s always been that. I’ve obviously been around him and seen him do stuff like this, but he’s always been that type of player. Whatever you need him to do, he’s capable of doing that. I’m not surprised at all.”

Veteran Heat fans will no doubt spend the run-up to Tuesday’s Game 4 invoking the spirit of 2006, when Miami fought back from a two-games-to-none hole in the NBA finals to win four straight and the franchise’s maiden championship. That year, the turning point came with a 42-point explosion in Game 3 by Dwayne Wade, a slashing wing out of Marquette turned Miami folk hero. Sound familiar?

“We know what Jimmy can do, we see it day in and day out,” Heat center Kelly Olynyk said. “His determination and his will to win were out of this world. We basically just gave him the ball and said, ‘Be great.’ And he was. He was making the right decision every single time, attacking the basket and making the right plays. Guys were ready to shoot. Guys made some cuts. That’s what we needed to close out that game.”

Trouble has a new name. And an NBA finals that appeared headed for a quick denouement not long ago may only just be getting started.

“I could care less about a triple-double,” Butler said. “We play this game to win. I’m glad my teammates got a lot of trust and faith in me to go out there and hoop like that, but like I always say, you guarantee me a win, I could care less.”