“I’ve seen him play great basketball in …

“I’ve seen him play great basketball in the playoffs,” Spoelstra said when asked after the game if he’s ever seen Adebayo play better, given the stakes (on the road in the conference finals, coming off a blowout loss at home) and circumstances (Butler missed the entire second half with a knee injury). “I really have. He’s a winning player. And you know, he really is the heart and soul of our group. You can count on him all the time. He doesn’t get caught up in all the noise and everything. He’s just out there competing. Playing winning basketball. Doing it on both ends and doing what is necessary. Tonight we needed the scoring and we needed that offensive punch early on. Then when Jimmy was out in the second half, he just stabilized us. It got a little gnarly out there and when it did, we were able to get the ball to Bam and just get something coherent.”