Jimmy Butler stood out from the pack in the Bulls’ Game 1 victory over the top-seeded Boston Celtics on Sunday, powering a conciliatory effort to pacify the Celtics’ late-game comeback attempt.
Jimmy Butler is the best player in the Bulls-Celtics series
The Celtics threw the kitchen sink at Butler, but their efforts were in vain.
Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
Butler scored 30 points on 9-of-19 shooting, racking up nine rebounds, three assists, a block, and a steal along the way to lead Chicago to a 106-102 win on Easter. He scored 23 of those points in the second half, including a 15-point fourth quarter that stiff-armed a Celtics team searching for late-game heroics.
Even while Isaiah Thomas gave Boston 33 points on 10-of-18 shooting, Butler gleamed as the better player on the floor.
Chicago’s All-Star forward repeatedly came up huge for his team when they needed him, and he did it with one of two stalwart defenders, Avery Bradley or Jae Crowder, checking him much of the night.
When the Celtics tried to put young Jaylen Brown on Butler, he scoffed before blowing by the rookie with a dirty crossover.
Butler makes the game look easy. He isn’t a flashy dribbler or a deadeye shooter, but he’s calculated with every move. Give him enough space, he’ll blow by you. If there’s a visible mismatch, he’ll exploit it. Not careful enough with the ball? He’s going to swipe it.
For all these reasons and more, Butler’s an All-Star starter.
Just as Thomas was headed to the rack for a momentum-shifting layup, Butler rode him and swatted it off of IT4’s face, stealing possession and Boston’s hopes at a comeback.
This is why the Celtics tried to acquire Butler at the trade deadline.
Boston nearly moved heaven and earth to bring Jimmy Butler to Beantown during the All-Star break, but their efforts were fruitless. They reportedly wanted to keep Crowder in any deal that would have brought the All-Star forward to town, while the Bulls weren’t about to get fleeced out of their best player.
Butler showed exactly how valuable of a player he is on Sunday — that’s arguably the most valuable in this series.
Chicago benefited from Bobby Portis’ timely three-point shooting, and the always-reliable Robin Lopez also poured in a double-double to help steady the Bulls throughout the game. But Chicago’s success this series solely lies on Butler’s shoulders, and whether he can carry his team past a conference-best Celtics team.
He showed he’s up to the challenge in Game 1. And if he keeps lighting up the Celtics as this series rages on, Boston will have a lot more to worry about.
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