NBA fans would be hard-pressed to find a star player in the league with more of a reputation for raising his level of play in the playoffs compared to the regular season than Golden State Warriors forward Jimmy Butler. His playoff heroics over the years have earned him the nickname Playoff Jimmy.
Butler recently explained his Playoff Jimmy persona and said that he may have the ball in his hands more often and look for his shot with greater regularity in the playoffs. Plus, to Butler, it seems as if the monicker is a testament to his willingness to do anything it takes for his team to win.
“Man, I think it’s a facade that people have created over the years,” Butler told ESPN. “I know what I’m capable of. I can tell you that. And I love it because everybody thinks I just take it up a notch and I don’t really just take it up a notch. I just might have the ball a little bit more. I might be a tad more aggressive, looking to score.
“[But] you’re talking about somebody that’s going to do anything to f—— win. That’s some motherf—– right there. The person that they deemed as [Playoff Jimmy], he’ll die out there. He really will. It’s scary. He really will die out there.”
The 35-year-old played several years for the Miami Heat before joining the Warriors franchise. Butler helped the Heat reach the NBA Finals twice in 2020 and 2023, and Miami arguably had to beat more talented teams than it in both Finals runs.
In 21 games played (all starts) in the 2020 NBA Playoffs, Butler ranked tops on the Heat in points and assists per game.
Butler then saved maybe the most impressive playoff run of his career so far for the 2023 NBA Playoffs. He averaged 27.4 points, 7.4 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 2.1 steals per game and led a No. 8 seed Heat team to the championship series. Miami became just the second No. 8 seed in playoff history to represent its conference in the NBA Finals.
The forward is now looking to add to his lengthy list of memorable playoff performances with the Warriors. He missed Game 3 of Golden State’s first-round series against the Houston Rockets with a pelvic contusion, but the expectation is that he’ll make a return to the court for Monday’s Game 4.
Butler’s Warriors can take a commanding 3-1 lead over the Rockets before the series heads back to Houston for Game 5. A win in Game 4 would put Golden State in the driver’s seat to advance to the next round, as only a handful of teams in league history have come back from such a deficit to win the series.
