It was a perfect night for Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat.
The Heat were perfect from the free throw line, 40-for-40, in Tuesday’s 112-111 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Their pristine performance at the charity stripe breaks the 39-for-39 record set by the Utah Jazz in 1982.
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Butler’s three-point play with 12.9 seconds left in regulation helped his team win and capped a 23-for-23 performance at the line. That mark puts Butler in second place tied with James Harden and Dirk Nowitzki. Harden did it in 2019 when he faced the Spurs as a member of the Rockets and Nowitzki set his mark in a Western Conference Finals matchup against OKC in 2011.
Butler finished the night with 35 points, seven rebounds and four assists. His performance willed a shorthanded Heat squad, who only had nine players available, to their fourth win in six games. The Heat were down one more player after center Dewayne Dedmon was ejected from the game in second quarter.
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Dedmon was subbed out with 9:25 remaining in the first half and smacked a massage gun that was placed behind the bench. The massage gun ended up landing near the three point line, startling Heat guard Max Strus. Play was quickly halted and Dedmon was ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct. Dedmon finished the night with two points — both coming from free throws — and three rebounds in five minutes of action.
The Heat were without key players Tyler Herro, Kyle Lowry, Caleb Martin and Bam Adebayo due to injury. Reserves Nikola Jovic, Duncan Robinson and Omer Yurtseven were also out due to injury.
With News Wire Services
