After absorbing an elbow to the grill, an infuriated Jimmy Butler single-handedly destroyed the Toronto Raptors, and re-wrote the Chicago Bulls’ record books Sunday.
Jimmy Butler leaves the game with a cut lip cut from an elbow by DeMarre Carroll. pic.twitter.com/RvIhNTIrTF
— MarcusD (@_MarcusD_) January 3, 2016
Butler scored 40 of his game-high 42 points after halftime in the Bulls’ galvanizing 115-113 road win; this topped Michael Jordan’s 39-point second half performance against the Milwaukee Bucks from twenty-seven years ago.
Jimmy Buckets, though, wants to avoid any and all comparisons to MJ.
Per the Chicago Tribune:
It was after Butler had sunk the go-ahead 3-pointer with 30.9 seconds left, capping a rally from 15 down in the Bulls’ 115-113 victory over the Raptors, their fourth straight, on an afternoon in which Derrick Rose missed his third straight game in advance of a Monday MRI on his sore right hamstring and knee. The Bulls gathered in a huddle.
“We were just talking about (how) we have to build off this,” Butler said. “Keep going. Don’t settle. Try to win as many games in a row.” […] Butler authored the signature moment of his blossoming career, scoring 40 of his 42 points after halftime, after he had seen blood. Will Sunday become a signature moment in a Bulls season that suddenly has an arrow pointing up?
On Feb. 16, 1989, Jordan scored 39 of his 50 in the second half of a 117-116 victory over the Bucks at Chicago Stadium. Butler endorses the Jordan Brand but wanted no part in such talk. […] “‘Don’t compare me to him’ — that’s exactly what I said,” Butler recalled when asked his reaction to being informed of the franchise record. “I don’t want to be compared to him because then people are going to think I’ve got to do what he did. I’m trying, but we’re nowhere near the same player. I’m just happy we got the win. Points or no points, we’re leaving here with a ‘W.'”
