Jimmy Butler Single-Handedly Keeping Chicago Bulls from Total Collapse

For the second time in 11 days, Jimmy Butler reminded the Chicago Bulls just how lost they’d be without him.

Thursday night was, in many ways, the 2015-16 Bulls in miniature. Even with Derrick Rose and Pau Gasol out, it shouldn't have taken overtime and a career night from Butler to beat a Philadelphia 76ers group that, despite its recent organizational steps toward respectability, barely qualifies as an NBA team.

But behind Butler's career-high 53 points, Chicago pulled out a 115-111 overtime victory in Philadelphia after trailing by as much as 24 in the first half.

Given the disparity in talent, an overtime win against these Sixers is as good as a loss for the Bulls’ resume. But for Butler’s, it’s maybe his most impressive feat yet in a season that has been full of them.

On January 3, Butler’s 40-point second half propelled Chicago to a come-from-behind road victory over the Toronto Raptors. He played 38 minutes in that game, willing the Bulls when nobody else showed up. And he did it again Thursday, playing 49 minutes, on a bad ankle, in the third game of the team's only four-games-in-five-nights stretch of the season (it plays the Dallas Mavericks on Friday at home).

This kind of effort is becoming routine, which says as much about the state of the Bulls as it does about Butler blossoming into one of the best two-way players in the NBA. This group's flaws are many, despite having the third-best record in the Eastern Conference.

Even with a recent six-game winning streak that quelled some of the earlier panic, the Bulls are still caught between identities, with an aging, disjointed roster and a new coach, Fred Hoiberg, who is still working to implement a new offense.

Chris Szagola/Associated Press

Even the most balanced, well-put-together teams are predicated on having a go-to crunch-time player in the LeBron James-Stephen Curry-Kevin Durant mold. A player who, merely by being on the floor, gives a club a chance to win.

Rose used to be that guy for the Bulls, years before the injuries wiped out his ability to impose his will. Now, it’s Butler, the one player on this roster whose on-court performance has been beyond reproach as he’s posting a 57.1 true-shooting percentage while using a career-high 24.6 percent of the Bulls’ possessions and playing his usual lockdown defense.

This is why Butler could get away with calling out Hoiberg in December for not coaching the team hard enough. If any other Bulls player had made those comments, it wouldn’t have passed the smell test.

Chris Szagola/Associated Press

But all season, Butler has put his money where his mouth is, backing up his five-year, $95 million contract and his talk of wanting to be the Bulls’ leader by putting them on his back at times like these. He hasn’t missed a game this season and is playing a league-leading 38 minutes per contest, even while banged up.

The Bulls have a lot of things to figure out between now and the start of the playoffs. Maybe they make a move before the February 18 trade deadline to get extra help on the wing and unclog the frontcourt rotation, or maybe they stand pat. Maybe Hoiberg’s uptempo offense, which has been effective in flashes, finally clicks for good and becomes a consistent source of success.

Maybe Rose (who missed Thursday’s game with left knee tendinitis) can stay healthy and continue the promising recent stretch of play.

All of that is up in the air. The only certainty for the Bulls is that they have a franchise player who not only has the physical ability to be a go-to scorer but the will to grind himself into dust if necessary to keep them competitive.

In an ideal world, Butler wouldn’t have to do that. But just knowing that he will takes pressure off the rest of the Bulls. And for all the rest of their flaws, that’s something that is impossible to take for granted. 

Sean Highkin covers the Chicago Bulls for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.