Jimmy Butler Talked Spoelstra into Heat's Tying Play vs. Bucks: 'Let Me Be That Guy'

Jimmy Butler wanted the ball in his hands when the Miami Heat needed a bucket in the final seconds of regulation against the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night.

Butler somehow converted an alley-oop from an inbound play to tie the game at 118-all.

Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra explained he didn't initially plan for the six-time All-Star to take the final shot, but Butler insisted.

"He looked me dead in the eye and he just said, 'No. Let me be that guy,'" Spoelstra told reporters.

Butler said he thought he might be able to beat Bucks star Jrue Holiday to the ball, which was why he pushed for changing the play call.

"You could just tell the entire series that Jrue wasn't taking a body off me," he said. "He wasn't going to shoot the gap. He wasn't going to do any of that.

"So I said, 'I guarantee you that when I turn this corner, he's going to be lock-and-trail, he's going to be behind me.' ... [Spoelstra] trusted me in that moment, like he has done multiple times."

For now, the 2020 NBA Finals are the defining playoff series of Butler's career. Miami eliminating the top-seeded Bucks in the first round is right up there, though.

The 33-year-old averaged 37.6 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.8 steals while shooting 59.7 percent from the field against Milwaukee. His Game 4 performance, when he scored a franchise playoff record of 56 points, will be immortalized for a long time.

The end to regulation in Game 5 only added to the legend.

It would've been one thing if Butler requested to have the last shot and heaved up a contested jumper that had little chance of going down. But he managed to foresee exactly how he could exploit Milwaukee's defense.

His alley-oop was a bit of a prayer, but you'd be hard-pressed to create a better scoring opportunity in that situation.

The Heat are the lowest seed in the Eastern Conference, one that lost to the Atlanta Hawks by 11 points in the play-in tournament. Yet Miami epitomizes a team that's built for the playoffs, and it starts with Butler.