Heat star Jimmy Butler sprains ankle. ‘Waiting game’ begins on his Game 2 status

The Miami Heat holds a 1-0 lead in its second-round playoff series against the New York Knicks but it now faces the possibility of needing to play without star Jimmy Butler.

While driving into the paint and drawing a foul on Knicks guard Josh Hart with 5:05 left in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s 108-101 win over the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, Butler rolled his right ankle and immediately grabbed it in pain.

The impressive playoff run continues. Takeaways from Heat’s Game 1 win over Knicks in New York

Butler remained on the court for a few minutes and the Heat was forced to call timeout before Butler limped back to the bench. Butler was able to stay in the game until heading to the bench with 23.6 seconds to play with the Heat already on its way to the victory.

“No idea,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said following Sunday’s game when asked for the team’s initial read on Butler’s ankle. “You just don’t know with ankle sprains. I don’t even know if we’ll know more by tomorrow. We’ll just have to see. It will be a waiting game. But he did not want to come out of the game. So we left him in there.”

Butler did not speak to reporters following Game 1. But during his walk-off interview with ABC, Butler was asked how his injured ankle felt.

“Like a rolled ankle,” Butler said.

Butler finished Sunday’s win with a team-leading 25 points and 11 rebounds in 44 minutes. He missed only one game this season — a Dec. 26 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves — with a sprained right ankle but has battled through various ankle sprains during his time with the Heat.

“We’ve been through this a few times,” Spoelstra said. “So each ankle sprain is unique and you have to evaluate things on a case by case basis and he sprained his ankle several times with us. I know him. I know when I can look in his eye and he assured me that he wasn’t going to be a liability and he wanted to stay in there and make sure we got this win.”

Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau and Hart shrugged off questions about why the Knicks didn’t attack Butler more when he was hobbled.

But guard Jalen Brunson said: “Tricky situation. Obviously he’s not 100 percent. He’s one of the best defenders in the league. Even if his feet aren’t moving fast side to side, he has great hands. As a team, we have got to do a better job recognizing what’s going on late in the game. It starts with me.”

Asked if the Knicks, on offense, should have gone after Butler more after his injury, Hart said: “It’s always easy to play Monday morning quarterback when you lose a game or a team goes on a run late in the game. Maybe that could have been something, maybe not.”

Heat guard Kyle Lowry said Butler was a “great decoy” late in the game.

“We tried to put him in situations but he’s a good player,” Thibodeau said. “He’s still going to find ways to do things.”

The Heat is required by the NBA to issue its injury report for Tuesday’s Game 2 by 5:30 p.m. on Monday.

KNICKS REACTION

Brunson, who scored 25 points but missed all seven of his three-point shots, called his play “horrific. It’s very uncharacteristic by me. I’ve got to be better.”

“Jimmy did a great job on Jalen,” Lowry said.

Other Knicks players attributed the loss to poor three-point shooting (7 for 34, 20.6 percent) and the Heat’s defense.

“We’re taking the right [shots],” Hart said. “Frustrated we didn’t shoot the ball better. We did a hell of a job in terms of playing tough, playing physical.

“I don’t think anyone thought this game or this series was going to be won or lost in the first game. I don’t think it’s an opportunity we let slip away. It’s going to be a tough, physical series. We held them to 43 percent from the field, outrebounded them. We played well; we [just] didn’t make shots.”

Said Knicks guard RJ Barrett: “They made adjustments, picked up the intensity, made shots and we didn’t. Every time we drove, they were swarming. I’ve been watching Kyle Lowry a long time growing up; he’s a guy that’s going to be getting strips and steals.”

THIS AND THAT

▪ Per ESPN, Butler became the fifth player in NBA history to score at least 25 points on 50 percent shooting in six consecutive games to begin a postseason, joining Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Bernard King and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

▪ Kevin Love had three long outlet passes leading to baskets in the third quarter. According to Second Spectrum, he’s the first player in 10 seasons to register three assists, in a game, on passes that traveled at least 60 feet. That’s the second time he has done that in his career.

“That’s such an incredible skill set that he has,” Spoelstra said.

▪ Vincent, who scored 20 points on on 6-of-16 shooting from the field, sank five threes and now has 31 three pointers in his past 13 playoff games.

“With Tyler out and Vic out, we frankly do need Gabe to be more aggressive,” Spoelstra said.