The Hunter Becomes The Hunted: Story of the Series
The Milwaukee Bucks have been eliminated from the 2023 NBA Playoffs
In the wild there are hunters, and there are the hunted. The predators, and the prey. Rarely do these roles ever reverse. And yet, that is exactly what happened in the series between the first and eighth seeds of the Eastern Conference.
The Miami Heat felled the Milwaukee Bucks within five games. That alone is mindblowing. The number one team in the entire conference and one of the best in the entire league. Led by an MVP caliber talent in Giannis Antetokounmpo, a defensive anchor in Jrue Holiday, an imposing paint presence in Brook Lopez, and reliable gunslinger Khris Middleton. Those four alone present a challenge unlike any other. To hunt an animal like that takes more than strength and skill.It takes stamina. It takes hunger. It takes obsession. Add on to that the fact that the Heat were injured and undermanned, and you’d be right in assuming that Milwaukee would lead Miami deep into their neck of the woods and leave them lost while the Bucks went on to the next round.
But that didn’t happen. Instead, Miami unleashed its own beast on the bucks. Jimmy Butler.
At a glance, there is nothing about Butler’s numbers that are otherworldly. He makes just over half his shots on average, a little over a third of his three pointers, and 85 percent of his free throws. His style of play is the same. He doesn’t jump out of the gym like Ja Morant, nor does he shoot the lights out like Steph. He doesn’t even strike an imposing figure like the gigantic Greek Freak he was facing this round. For onlookers like myself, this was a retelling of David versus Goliath.
But on the court, Jimmy didn’t look like David. He was a giant that even dwarfed the Greek Freak. Butler’s performance was downright Shakespearian. In the words of Caesar, “He doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus.” And those petty Bucks walked under his legs and peeped about, praying he didn’t step on them any harder than he already planned to. Such men are dangerous. And Jimmy Butler is a dangerous man.
In the regular season, him and the Miami Heat flew so far under the radar that at times you questioned if they were even airborne at all. They barely made it into the playoffs via the play-in tournament. Yet as soon as game 1 against the Bucks began, I waited for him. Not for ‘regular season Jimmy Butler.’ I waited for ‘playoff Jimmy Butler.’ As the man has shown for the last few years, he is not just one man. Like Dr Jekyll, Jimmy Butler keeps an animal chained inside him. A beast that only comes out when it is either let out or claws its way out. And every time the playoffs come around, ‘Dr. Jimmy’ opens the cage, unmuzzles the beast, and points it at its prey. It doesn’t matter whether its prey is a feeble hornet, a neutered bull, or a healthy stag. The beast has no fear. And an equally voracious appetite for all that meet its gaze.
Even the might of Giannis could not stop the beast of Miami. Time and time again, the odds seemed stacked against the Heat. Yet each time, they rose to the occasion. In the end, the Heat went deep into the woods, chasing the Bucks for miles. It seemed like they had been led into a trap. Whether they were or weren’t made no difference. In the end, only one beast reemerged from the wilderness. It was not the one I expected. But looking back at history, I question why I doubted them in the first place.
