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An optimist would refer to Jimmy Butler as highly passionate about his job.

A pessimist might suggest he can be hard on his teammates.

The 2018 Minnesota Timberwolves roster, specifically Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins, would probably call him names I cannot use in this article.

Whether your glass is half empty or half full, we can all agree that Jimmy Butler prefers winning to losing.

Tonight, in a win-or-go-home situation for the Miami Heat, Butler will make his presence known on the court.

With that in mind, this might be an opportunity for us to cash a bet.

Let’s go.

The Butler Did It!

In 64 games this year, Jimmy Butler was the leading scorer for the Miami Heat, averaging 23 points a game.

Butler also led the Heat in assists, averaging 5.3 per game. Tonight, at home against the Bulls, Jimmy B has a prop total set at +5.5 assists.

Our graph above shows that Butler has gone over +5.5 assists in 8 of his last 10 games.

Our BestOdds Edge betting software projects him at 5.92 assists tonight, which is over his total, but just.

Crunch Time!

Obviously, we like props that are hitting at an 80% rate of late, but we also like to bet on players who play big minutes in big games.

Jimmy Butler is that guy in Miami.

Above we can see the minutes Butler played in each of his last ten games.

The Heat PG averaged just under 33 minutes per game for the season.

However, in Miami’s play-in game against Atlanta, Butler was on the court for almost 39 minutes.

Tonight is a must-win scenario for the Heat. We believe that his minutes will be closer to 39 than 33 for this important game.

If Butler does play somewhere close to 39 minutes, I suspect he goes OVER his assist total yet again.

If we could figure out a way to parlay that with an OVER total death stares he throws his teammates tonight, we would make that bet too.

Wishing you the best of luck with all your NBA playoff picks and parlays.