Just How Bad Was Jimmy Butler's Ankle Injury in the Playoffs?

During game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, Jimmy Butler went down with an ankle injury that didn't look all too pretty. You could visibly see he was in a load of pain, and you even saw coach Erik Spoelstra say a very very bad word. After game 1, we saw him miss game two, but then he returned in game 3, and subsequently play for the rest of Miami's magical run to the finals. So he was all good, right? The ankle had healed fully and he was good to go, right? Well, not really. Let me explain.

Firstly, let's revisit the injury itself. Jimmy Butler rolled his ankle outward off of the

foot of a New York Knicks player, which is medically called an ankle inversion injury. This means that there is damage to the lateral ligaments of the ankle (the outer part of your ankle). The image to the right shows the three primary lateral ligaments of the ankle. In this scenario, Jimmy Butler could've sprained any of these ligaments, but we don't specifically because the Miami Heat never released any specific diagnosis except for an ankle sprain.

We also got information on the ankle injury from NBA reporter Kristian Winfield, who tweeted after game 1 that Butler's ankle had swollen to the size of a baseball. In other words, he really messed up his ankle. This information is an indication of the ankle sprain being severe because when it comes to ankle sprains, more swelling = more bad. Trust me, I know. Unfortunately.

On top of this, by just watching Jimmy Butler play for the rest of the playoffs after this injury, something very prominent was notable. He simply wasn't as aggressive in his play style. And while this may be something glanced over for other stars, it raises eyebrows for Jimmy Butler. His style of play is one that is very aggressive, as he will get to the rim at will. Whether that means bulldozing his way there, forcing contact and a foul, or whatever else. He just gets to the rim. However, after game 1 in New York, he was noticeably less aggressive. He would settle for mid-range looks he usually wouldn't take, take way more catch-and-shoot shots, and most noticeably, he stopped driving to the rim almost entirely. And on the rare occasion that he did drive to the rim, he wouldn't force as much contact. He even started to much much slower, causing his usual fast-paced, bruising style of getting to the rim to become ineffective. Speaking of ineffectiveness, his efficiency went down. According to StatMuse, before he got injured, Jimmy Butler had an FG% of 60.98%. After the injury? An ugly 39.38%. That is a huge drop, something very uncommon with a player like Butler, who always turns it up in the postseason.

All of this tells us one thing about his ankle sprain: it was bad. Like bad. Like muy malo (making my Spanish teacher proud!). Based on the report that his ankle was very swollen, the fact that he visibly was a different player (not for the better), and the fact that his efficiency dropped off an absolute cliff, it is not only safe to assume that he sprained his ankle badly but right to assume so. Now, the fact that he's a stupid-rich athlete with access to world-class facilities definitely helped him return to play very quickly, but nevertheless, his ankle was sprained badly. We can't determine the specific grade of the sprain because that information isn't on the internet, but we can assume that it was a high grade 2-low grade 3 common ankle sprain (he didn't fully tear the ligament, but he damaged it badly. Not badly enough for surgery though).

So yeah, to answer the question in the title, he sprained his ankle pretty freakin' badly. Now, there haven't been any reports that he's still dealing with the injury in training camp, so we can assume that the injury isn't bothering him anymore and that he's back to Jimmy Buckets. But yeah, sprained his ankle pretty badly. But he still beat the Celtics with a bum ankle, so ha! Take that Boston!

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