Flickr | Keith Allison
Jimmy Butler made his season debut for the Chicago Bulls in a big way as he lifted the team to 106-105 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on two clutch free throws with 0.2 seconds left. After Kevin Martin hit a three pointer to give Minnesota the lead with 2.9 seconds left, Butler took advantage of his matchup with Andrew Wiggins to force the rookie phenom into making a silly foul.
The free throws capped what was an excellent premiere night for Butler. Without Rose, Butler took over the role of aggressor and finisher with repeated drives to the rim. In addition to strong finishing ability, he got various Timberwolves into foul trouble and went to the line early and often. It was a pleasant turnaround for a guy that seemingly became overly passive over the course of the previous season.
That the game ended up going down to the wire isn’t entirely too surprising. Without Derrick Rose, the Bulls were without the focal point of the offense . Additionally, the Bulls fell into their usual trap of hitting a massive roadblock coming out of halftime despite playing excellent basketball throughout the entirety of the first half. Somewhat surprisingly though, Chicago’s struggles continued through the fourth quarter when they couldn’t generate any offense outside of Pau Gasol and free throws.
Overall the game wasn’t the prettiest, though Chicago was able to pull out a win that should help the team gel faster during the growing pain period every team with key members suffers through. Most importantly, the Bulls were able to pull off a win in a high scoring offensive game, demonstrating their new found ability to keep pace even when their defense fails them.
That’s twice that Jimmy has played at an all-star level. One side of me thinks the Bulls should have gotten the contract done. If he continues to play like this, he will be set to earn max money.
The other side of me wonders if GarPax is an evil genius; is the lack of contract the reason for this up-tick?