Jimmy Butler hits another winner of the match as the Sixers have found the closest they needed

When the news of Jimmy Butler's exchange at Sixers was announced, I asked Wilson Chandler what kind of gaps Butler was going to fill, once the deal would become official. He immediately went to end-of-game situations. "It's a guy who has been successful in throwing," Chandler said. At that point, I thought, yes, great, he's been successful, but how often do those situations happen?

In fact, quite often.

Butler has now played seven games with the Sixers and has made the winning shot in less than a second to play two games. First, he did it against the Hornets to spoil Kemba Walker's 60-point mark, then Sunday night he did it with another three-point recoil, with 0.4 second to give the Sixers a victory of 127-125. There she is:

This is just a dagger through the heart. The Nets had hit several potential winners in the final minutes – one Joe Harris three, then a mid-ranger Spencer Dinwiddie. But Butler was not to be overcome. If you are Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Butler accepts shooting in this situation. This is not how most teams would write it. In these last-second situations, the conventional thinking is to do something towards the basket, to put the responsibility on the referees, to force the action. If this shot does not come in, you are going to have all sorts of "experts" talking about how Butler "s" is installed ".

But it's a league to do or miss.

And he came in.

It was almost identical to the one he hit against Charlotte:

For my money, I'm OK with these shots, not just because they've entered. I have seen too many guys forcing too much action in these situations and trusting me to whistle, only to not get a call and end up with a much tougher shot in the traffic. When you do what Butler has done twice, you reduce the time and you play face to face in space, you know that you will at least have a clean appearance. That's really all you can ask for. In these situations, Butler turns out to have a talent for the big shot, so make sure that he has the opportunity to take it and live with the results. Congratulations to Brett Brown for not complicating this excessively.

The Sixers are now 5-2 with Butler on board, and while the winning shots are the extreme example, they clearly have the end-game piece they missed. The players, coaches and scouts I talked to all said the same thing: Philly needed it. He needed a player capable of creating his own shot, especially in fourth-quarter and end-of-game situations. Butler scored 18 points in the fourth quarter Sunday 7 out of 7 shots, including 4 out of 4 out of three.

Seriously, do you want to indulge yourself with a fan base? How about this type of real-time statistics and some winners? Brown referred to Butler and the city of Philadelphia as mutant mirrors. Allen Iverson has anything but called Butler the savior. Just sign the long-term agreement already. Marriage is all happiness.

Now, bigger picture, Butler is hiding stuff here. The Sixers probably should not need last-minute shots to beat the Nets and Hornets, without disrespect to either team, as they are both better than many. many people thought to be. Despite everything, Butler's five wins in a Philly uniform were combined with a total of 17 points. They beat the pelicans by one. The nets by two. The Hornets by three. Suns by five. Philly needs more shooting and can probably find it on the buyout market, and the defensive effort / execution needs to be more consistent. But Joel Embiid was spectacular. Ben Simmons finds himself alongside Butler and plays a more offbeat role. The main parts come together and victory always facilitates these transitions. In short, the Sixers have a better chance of winning every night with Butler by their side.