Is Jimmy Butler Unstoppable?

Jimmy Butler has dominated the Milwaukee Bucks thus far. In the first two games of this series Butler has shot 54.5 percent from the field, 35.7 percent from deep and has averaged 28 points, 5.5 rebounds and four assists per game.

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If he keeps playing at such a high level, the chances that Milwaukee makes a serious run at winning this series are not good. In fact, they might not be able to take a game from Butler and the surging Bulls. But can Butler keep this torrid pace up?

There’s no way to know for sure, but we can look at how he’s performed in the playoffs in his last few seasons to get an idea of if this is a typical two-game stretch for Butler, or if he’s simply playing out of his mind right now and should (hopefully, for Bucks fans) start to cool off in the near future.

Season	GS	MP	FGA	FG%	3PA	3P%	eFG%	FTA	FT%	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
2012-13	12	40.8	9.6	.435	3.1	.405	.500	4.6	.818	5.2	2.7	1.3	0.5	1.3	2.2	13.3
2013-14	5	43.6	11.4	.386	4.0	.300	.439	4.6	.783	5.2	2.2	1.2	0.0	0.6	2.6	13.6
2014-15	2	40.5	16.5	.545	7.0	.357	.621	11.0	.682	5.5	4.0	0.5	0.5	1.0	1.0	28.0
Career	19	36.0	9.3	.439	3.2	.366	.502	4.5	.780	4.5	2.3	1.0	0.3	1.0	1.9	12.9

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 4/23/2015.

Clearly Butler has been good in past seasons, but never this good. He’s more than doubled his playoff average scoring numbers, and is shooting over ten percent better than he ever has in the postseason before, although strangely his free-throw percentage has dropped off.

His assist numbers are also the best they’ve been in the playoffs, which is noteworthy considering this is the only season out of the three listed he’s gotten to play with Derrick Rose.

It seems to me that Rose has had a huge impact on this entire Chicago team, even though unlike in Game 1 he was largely ineffective for most of Game 2. His presence and energy is firing up Butler and helping to elevate his game to a higher level. But can it last?

It’s hard to really tell. I want to say no, based on his history, but honestly Butler seems like a completely different player this season based on his strong case to win the NBA Most Improved Player Award. He had a few good games in the 2013 and 2014 postseason, but none even close to the two in a row he’s dropped on the Bucks.

I don’t think he’ll be as good as he has been against Milwaukee for the entire series, but if Jason Kidd and his team do not switch up their gameplan and lock in on Butler on defense I would be surprised if he didn’t keep playing at a level at least near where he’s been thus far. That can’t happen, or Milwaukee will find themselves in a tough situation.

Over one-fourth of Butler’s points scored this series have come from three-point territory. That’s obviously not good, but it is also something that can be prevented. In the first two games of the series the Bucks were slow to get around screens and get to Butler (and Rose, who’s scored nearly 40 percent of his points on threes) when they shot threes.

Milwaukee needs to be a lot more vigilant about that, especially considering how many of those long-range bombs came late in both games to help seal the victories for Chicago. The Bucks played a great, swarming defensive style this whole season; they need to get back to closing out on every single shooter in order to at least slow down Butler and the Bulls.

Doubling Butler is another option, but not one that I like very much. If Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau notices an extra man on Butler he could easily load up his lineup with shooters (Brooks, Rose, Butler, Dunleavy, Gasol is one option) and just have Butler pass it to the open man. He’s not a point guard but he has averaged four assists compared to just one turnover per game, so clearly he’s capable of moving the ball around.

I think the real key in slowing down Butler is simply going to be Milwaukee playing its frenetic style of defense better, and whoever is covering him stepping up. Most of the time in this series, that’s going to be Khris Middleton. Some people (myself included) believe Money may get a near-max contract this season, if not an actual max.

A big part of him potentially earning that kind of contract was his defense. Middleton was a good defender this season, ending the year with 3.5 defensive win shares, 0.5 defensive box plus-minus and a defensive rating of 102. Those numbers are solid. Allowing Jimmy Butler to average 28 points and shoot over 50 percent is not.

If Middleton still wants those max offers, he might want to show up on defense a little bit in this series. If he doesn’t, Butler may end up at least seeming unstoppable for the rest of this series, and the Bucks can’t afford that if they want to win a few games against the rival Bulls.

Next: Milwaukee Bucks Need To Start Winning Momentum Shifts

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