In either case, Butler went off. The 35-year-old finished with 35 points, 19 rebounds, 10 assists, four steals, and zero turnovers in 44 minutes. He was 12-for-21 from the field.
Forbes Sports’ Evan Sidery made an excellent point about Butler shortly after the final whistle.
“When Butler is locked in, he’s still one of the more dominant two-way wings in the NBA,” Sidery said.
“Butler put together a dominant performance tonight in an overtime loss to the Pistons.”
Butler was averaging 18.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 4.7 assists per game entering Monday. Each of those figures either ties or exceeds his career averages in the respective categories.
He’s been linked recently to the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets, among plenty of other teams.
Maybe Miami will end up holding onto him until this summer. Butler’s team has indicated that he will be opting out of his player option for 2025-26.