Heat's Jimmy Butler Says 'Playoff Jimmy' Is 'Not a Thing' After Scoring 56 vs. Bucks

Any NBA fan who tunes in to watch Jimmy Butler play in the postseason knows he elevates his game to another level in the most important moments.

But he isn't embracing the "Playoff Jimmy" nickname.

"It's not a thing," he told reporters when speaking about the moniker after Monday's brilliant 56-point performance in the Miami Heat's 119-114 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks. "It's not. I just be hooping."

Playoff Jimmy was very much a thing in the Game 4 win, regardless of what he said.

The six-time All-Star finished with a stat line of 56 points and nine rebounds on 19-of-28 shooting from the field, 3-of-8 from deep and 15-of-18 from the free-throw line.

He played 41 minutes, fought through fatigue and put the team on his back while erasing a double-digit deficit in the final six minutes. In fact, he outscored the Bucks 21-16 in the last seven minutes and 30 seconds of the contest and set a franchise record for playoff points in the process.

It wasn't just a case of Butler getting hot for a few minutes either.

He scored 22 of his team's 28 points in the first quarter and went basket-for-basket with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez as the two Bucks big men combined for 62 points in an impressive showing on the other side.

Yet crunch time belonged to Butler, and Miami now has a 3-1 lead.

This is nothing new for Butler at this time of year. He carried Miami to the 2020 NBA Finals and led it to a Game 7 in last year's Eastern Conference Finals against the Boston Celtics. In all, he has averaged 24.0 points, 6.8 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 2.0 steals per game in the postseason with the Heat entering Monday.

By comparison, he has averaged 21.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 1.8 steals per game in the regular season during his tenure with the team.

The numbers may not be drastically different, but he is a better scorer in the postseason and has some of the most memorable moments of his career when the pressure is dialed up.

Now he has a historic performance that will go down in franchise lore after Monday's showing.