BOSTON — Jimmy Butler, back after missing seven games with a sore right knee, played his first game at TD Garden since his masterpiece in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals back in May.
And while Butler might not have been quite that impressive in his return Friday night, he still finished with 25 points, 15 rebounds and 3 assists in 36 minutes for the Miami Heat, who survived a miraculous shot in the final seconds by Jaylen Brown to win a 120-116 thriller in overtime over the defending Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics.
‘He’s such a winning player,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I feel like through the first three quarters I didn’t run a play for him. He just finds a way to compete and help your team win.”
It had looked like Butler had closed the door on the Celtics when he made baskets on back-to-back possessions inside the final minute of regulation — the first coming off an assist from Kyle Lowry, and the second after he got Al Horford to switch onto him and buried a beautiful fall-away jumper with 5.6 seconds to go to put the Heat up by three.
But then, Brown came through for Boston. After taking the inbounds pass from Marcus Smart, Brown took a couple of dribbles and launched a 30-footer that careened into the basket off the backboard with 1.7 seconds to go, tying the score to send the game to overtime.
Spoelstra said he was fine with how Butler defended the play, saying he was glad Butler didn’t commit a foul once Brown turned around.
“It felt good coming off my hands,” said Brown, who finished with 37 points on 12-for-23 shooting. “I know we wanted to get a shot up on the rim as fast as possible just in case we missed, we can get the rebound or tip out. So when I caught it in my hand, it felt good coming off, so I let it fly.”
Butler tipped his cap to Brown.
“Jaylen did what Jaylen does, and he’d been making shots all game long,” Butler said. “That’s tough. You got to live with that. Probably should’ve contested it,…
