Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has been so consumed by the team’s long string of losses that he didn’t realize Jimmy Butler’s return game was approaching.
“I literally haven’t really been able to check out the schedule,” Spoelstra said. “We’ve been trying to get a damn win. You stop really looking. That’s why the highest form of sanity is just to be in the present moment. When you’re in situations like this, you’re just in the present moment. You’re just trying to do everything you can just to get one win.”
But after the Heat finally snapped its 10-game skid with a 122-105 win over the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday night at Kaseya Center, there’s no avoiding it anymore. The next game on the Heat’s schedule comes against Butler and the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday in Miami (7:30 p.m., TNT).
It will mark Butler’s first game against the Heat and first game at Kaseya Center since Miami traded him to Golden State on Feb. 6 following a damaging few weeks for the team-player relationship between the Heat and Butler. There was a trade request from Butler, three suspensions without pay issued by the Heat and an airing of grievances against each other along the way before the trade.
According to multiple sources, Butler’s relationship with the team took a turn last offseason when Heat president Pat Riley publicly challenged Butler to be available for more games and the Heat declined to give Butler a two-year, $113 million contract extension. Butler was also unhappy with tweaks made to the Heat’s offense this season that he perceived left him playing in more of a complementary role than previous years.
Butler, 35, has downplayed his return to Miami and the Heat is taking a similar approach ahead of Tuesday’s matchup.
“It will be fun,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said. “I think it’s another game for us, honestly. We just came off a 10-game losing streak. We got bigger things to worry about. At this point, we just need to win games. Obviously, Jimmy is coming back here. But it’s a regular game.”
Butler’s former Heat co-star Bam Adebayo added: “It’s going to be a great game. I feel like it’s going to be high intensity, it’s going to be a great game for both teams and we’ll see who walks out with the W.”
As much as Butler and the Heat try to minimize the story lines surrounding Tuesday’s clash, the wounds are still fresh on both sides after their messy and public breakup.
Butler, who was traded by the Heat in the middle of his sixth season with the franchise, established himself as one of the greatest players in Heat history before feuding with the team on his way out. While Butler has still never won an NBA championship, he helped lead the Heat to three Eastern Conference finals appearances and two NBA Finals appearances during his five full seasons with the team.
Since the Butler trade was finalized on Feb. 6, the play-in tournament-bound Heat went on its longest losing streak since 2008 and has posted a 5-17 record to enter Tuesday’s game with an underwhelming 30-41 overall record. Meanwhile, the Warriors have posted an impressive 16-3 record when Butler has been available since the trade to enter Tuesday’s contest with a solid 41-30 overall record.
“Obviously, there will be a lot of different feelings about it,” Spoelstra said when asked about his emotions ahead of Butler’s return to Miami. “I probably won’t express all of them and that’s fair. But we had a great five-year run. We didn’t win the title, but only one team does. We had some great moments here. If we all get past that, that’s what you will always remember. It doesn’t matter what everybody feels right now.”
But Tuesday’s game will bring back memories of the Butler saga that Heat coaches and players endured just a few months ago — from Butler’s three team-issued suspensions during the span of a month to relentless trade speculation to Butler using a postgame press conference to say that he lost his “joy” on the court with the Heat.
Herro and Duncan Robinson, who were both on the Heat’s roster for Butler’s entire tenure in Miami, remember it well.
“It was all happening so fast,” Herro said. “You never knew what was going to happen day to day, whether he was going to get traded or not. So it was tough. Obviously, being a teammate of his and then also having respect for the organization. So kind of playing the middle ground was tough.”
Robinson described the experience as “another form of adversity.”
“The reality is it was just another season,” Robinson said. “Every season has its challenges and this one happened to be, I don’t want to say self-inflicted because none of us could control it. But sometimes it’s injuries, sometimes it’s availability, sometimes it’s whatever. This was just something different. So in that sense, it was a first. I hadn’t dealt with that.”
Tuesday will also bring a game with meaning for Andrew Wiggins, who was the centerpiece of the trade package that the Heat accepted for Butler. Miami acquired Wiggins, Kyle Anderson and a top-10 protected 2025 first-round pick from Golden State, and Davion Mitchell from the Toronto Raptors in the five-team Butler trade.
Wiggins spent parts of six seasons with the Warriors before being dealt to the Heat, playing a big role in the Warriors’ 2022 NBA championship. Along with winning his lone NBA title with Golden State, Wiggins also made the only NBA All-Star Game appearance of his career up to this point during his time with the Warriors in 2022.
“I love the people over there,” Wiggins said with a smile when discussing his former team. “I had a great time, great organization, my teammates were great, the fans were great. Amazing time. I loved it over there. So I’m happy to see them again.”
The feelings between the Heat and Butler are not as positive at the moment after the ugly ending to their time together. Whether there are boos or cheers for Butler from the Miami crowd at Kaseya Center remains to be seen, but there’s expected to be plenty of extra motivation on both sides for Tuesday’s game even if some of the players involved don’t want to admit it.
“It’s going to be exciting,” Heat second-year forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. said. “I’m sure this place is going to be jumping. We’re excited, I’m sure he’s going to be. It’s going to be an epic battle, for sure.”
Miami Herald
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Anthony Chiang covers the Miami Heat for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and was born and raised in Miami.