Heat handle Warriors, spoil Jimmy Butler's return to Miami - ESPN

MIAMI — Jimmy Butler III sat on the Golden State Warriors bench and watched a nearly 40-second video of his Miami Heat highlights play on the big screen above him at Kaseya Center.

From his iconic hunched-over, in-exhaustion moment in the 2020 NBA Finals to some of the other hits from his five-plus seasons with the Heat, Butler watched the tribute.

When the video ended, Butler was introduced by the Miami public address announcer as the last Warrior to be announced in the starting lineup. Butler raised both his arms in the air as a sign of appreciation to the fans who cheered him.

Then, the Heat spoiled Butler's return with a 112-86 rout over the Stephen Curry-less Warriors before a sellout crowd of 19,897.

«I got a lot of love in the city for the fan base here,» Butler said. «Video was nice. I won't say that there was a lot of emotions, though. I think I went into this thing level-headed. We wanted to win a game. It didn't go the way that we planned. We'll be all right.

»… I mean [the video] took me back to some good times when I was wearing a Miami Heat jersey. Very appreciative of those times, to help me become the player that I am, the individual that I am in this league, the teammate, the leader, all of those things. I don't think I could be who I am today without my opportunity here."

Butler, who was booed the majority of the time when he touched the ball, missed 5 of his first 6 shots before finishing with 11 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists. Miami's starting five all scored in double figures, led by Bam Adebayo's 27 points and eight rebounds.

Just about the only thing that went wrong for Miami on this night was that the hype video which precedes its lineup announcement was played without audio. Heat fans provided