If I told you before last night’s Game 4 of the Bucks-Heat series that Giannis Antetokounmpo would return from a two-plus-game absence to record a triple double while Brook Lopez added 36 points, you’d fairly assume that the series would be heading back to Milwaukee tied at two games apiece. Jimmy Butler had other ideas, though.

Butler had a Heat playoff record 56 points, including 21 in the fourth quarter as Miami stormed back from a 14-point deficit to put Milwaukee one loss away from going home. Butler sat until the 8:11 mark in the final period and proceeded to score 21 points on eight attempts from the field. The Bucks scored just 16 points over that span.

The icing on the cake for Butler was a pair of long shots that came just as the Bucks were starting to show signs of life again after a 13–0 Heat run gave Miami the lead. Butler’s audacious step-back shot with 58 seconds to go was a fraction of an inch from being a three-pointer and sent the crowd into a frenzy.

It was a performance for the ages. Charles Barkley called it the best he’s seen since he’s been doing television. And as Rohan Nadkarni explains, it’s even more impressive when you consider the context:

Other great individuals have showed out this postseason, from Devin Booker to Nikola Jokić to Jayson Tatum. None of them is playing an opponent as difficult as Milwaukee. And with Tyler Herro out, none of them have the lack of a second scoring option as Butler does. This also doesn’t even begin to take into account what Jimmy has done defensively, where he’s remained stout despite his Herculean offensive workload. For the series, Butler is now averaging 36.5 points on a comical 62.8% shooting to go along with 5.5 rebounds and 5.0 assists. There’s a lot of postseason left, but no one is playing better than Jimmy right now.

Butler has established himself as a player who steps up when the stakes are highest. Since the start of the 2020 playoffs, he has had seven 40-point games in the postseason. He’s had only eight 40-point games in the regular season in his entire career, and none since January ’17. He turns into a different player when the lights are brightest.

Butler carried the Heat all the way to the NBA Finals in the bubble in 2020 and carried them to within one shot of a return trip to the Finals last year. Now he’s got them on the verge of eliminating the team with the best regular-season record.

It was a bad day for Wisconsin sports fans

Even though everyone knew it was coming, the news that Aaron Rodgers has finally officially been traded to the Jets must have been a blow to Packers fans. Here’s how the trade shakes out:

Jets get:

Aaron Rodgers
Packers’ 2023 first-round pick (No. 15)
Packers’ ’23 fifth-round pick (No. 170)

Packers get:

Jets’ 2023 first-round pick (No. 13)
Jets’ ’23 second-round pick (No. 42)
Jets’ ’23 sixth-round pick (No. 207)
Jets’ ’24 conditional second-round pick (becomes a first-round pick if Rodgers plays 65% of the Jets’ offensive snaps this season)

That’s a pretty good deal for the Jets, right? Essentially, they get Rodgers in exchange for two draft picks while trading back two spots in the first round of this year’s draft and moving up from the sixth round to the fifth. It’s basically what Albert Breer predicted the deal would look like back in March. Breer also broke down how the trade finally wrapped up this week.

It’s a great deal for the Packers, too, who got rid of a guy who had no interest in remaining in Green Bay and get a decent haul of draft picks in return.

Adding Rodgers solves the Jets’ biggest question mark, obviously. They had some promising pieces on offense last season (like rookie running back Breece Hall and rookie receiver Garrett Wilson), but without a consistent solution at quarterback, the Jets scored the fourth-fewest points in the league. The defense is already among the league’s best (fourth in points allowed), so will a Rodgers-led offense be enough to get the Jets into the playoffs?

The best of Sports Illustrated

In today’s Daily Cover story, Franz Lidz caught up with Jason Collins, who 10 years ago became the first active male athlete in a major pro league to come out as gay.
Conor Orr argues that the Aaron Rodgers trade shows why the Jets’ fan base isn’t as tortured as it likes to think it is.
Albert Breer has a thorough breakdown of how the trade came to fruition.
Chris Mannix asks the question we’ve all been thinking: How is LeBron James still doing this?
Emma Baccellieri explains the secrets behind the Pirates’ surprisingly hot start.
De’Aaron Fox is expected to be listed as doubtful for tomorrow night’s Game 5 against the Warriors after breaking his finger in Game 4.
The Rockets are reportedly hiring former Celtics coach Ime Udoka. Udoka was suspended by Boston ahead of the 2022–23 season after he was discovered having an inappropriate relationship with a female team staff member.
Colorado football players are leaving the program in droves after the team’s spring game.
Hawks guard Dejounte Murray was suspended for tonight’s Game 5 in Boston after a video showed him bumping into an official.
Tottenham has fired interim manager Cristian Stellini after this weekend’s stunning 6–1 loss to Newcastle.

The top five...

… things I saw last night:

5. Jordan Eberle’s overtime winner for the Kraken to tie their series against the Avalanche.

4. Alex Kerfoot’s overtime winner for the Maple Leafs to cap a comeback from down 4–1 in the game and go up 3–1 in the series against the Lightning.

3. Angels outfielder Taylor Ward robbing a grand slam in the ninth. The A’s won in 10 innings, though.

2. LeBron James’s game-tying layup and Anthony Davis’s vicious block on Ja Morant to send the game to overtime.

1. LeBron’s reaction after driving on Dillon Brooks for a game-sealing and-one.

SIQ

What did Mariners manager Maury Wills instruct the grounds crew to do on this day in 1981, leading to a two-game suspension?

Move first base farther up the line
Widen the batter’s boxes
Stop cutting the infield grass
Make the warning track narrower

Yesterday’s SIQ: NFL owners voted to award an expansion franchise to Tampa Bay on April 24, 1974, and two months later approved adding a team in Seattle. Which of the following cities was not a finalist for an expansion team when the league added its 27th and 28th teams?

Honolulu
Memphis
Phoenix
Charlotte

Answer: Charlotte. Commissioner Pete Rozelle had promised Congress while fighting for an antitrust exemption in 1966 that the NFL would expand, but expansion had been slow. The Saints joined the NFL in ’67, and the Bengals joined the AFL in ’68, but membership was stagnant at 26 teams between the two leagues. At a league meeting in February ’74, four years after the NFL and AFL officially merged, prospective owners from several cities pitched the current owners on their expansion bids. Candidates included Jacksonville, Orlando (a team former Patriots player and executive Rommie Loudd wanted to call the Florida Suns) and Indianapolis. But after listening to bids, the NFL narrowed down the list of finalists to Tampa Bay, Seattle, Memphis, Phoenix and Honolulu.

After Tampa Bay was awarded its franchise, Seattle, Phoenix and Memphis were considered the other favorites to get a team, with Honolulu a dark-horse candidate. Putting a team in Hawai‘i would pose all sorts of travel challenges (a nonstop flight from New York to Honolulu is four hours longer than New York to London), but the issue was particularly problematic in the mid-1970s, with the oil crisis threatening long-distance air travel.

The NFL was also grappling with a new upstart football league that threatened to throw a wrench in its expansion plans. The World Football League had already announced plans for teams in Memphis and Honolulu, and placing an NFL team in those cities would risk inviting an antitrust lawsuit from the WFL.

Despite speculation that the NFL could simultaneously award expansion franchises to Memphis, Phoenix and Seattle, bringing the total number of teams to 30, only Seattle was approved as a new member of the league.

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