Whether he was making a statement about his team’s loss or not, the fact that Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler called out Nickelback in the locker room following last week’s overtime loss to the Orlando Magic at Amway Center caught the band’s attention Canadian.
On Friday, the band took to Twitter to inform Butler: “We’re going on tour this summer, contact us if you want to play live.”
The message was prefaced with: “It’s not like Jimmy… to say sorry!”
This comes from the band’s “How You Remind Me”, which includes the lyrics “It’s not like saying sorry”.
Butler, as he is wont to do, not only played his postgame playlist at full volume, he sang his way, as he is wont to do.
Butler has been working for the past year on producing a country album with a variety of singers, with friends in the genre with Luke Combs, Luke Bryan and Filmore, featured in the opening of Bryan’s “Light It Up” video. He also expressed that he enjoys Taylor Swift.
Butler early in his career he told NBC Sports, “I like country music. I listen to a little bit of hip-hop. But I try to listen to the people that I’ve built relationships with over the years, so whether it’s Ludacris or Lee Brice or Jason Aldean, whoever it is, I try to support them like they support me.”
Lowry out
The Heat have ruled guard Kyle Lowry out of Saturday night’s game against the Chicago Bulls at the United Center.
Lowry is three games into a comeback due to knee pain that kept him out for 15 games in a month.
With a back-to-back road set ending Sunday against the Detroit Pistons opening Saturday, Lowry, who turns 37 in a week, was expected to play just one of the two games.
Lowry, who had been among the league leaders in minutes earlier in the season, has not played both ends of a back-to-back since Dec. 30-31 at Denver and Utah.
Tired, record
The Heat ended up with a decided lead on Saturday night, sitting idle since then Wednesday night’s win over the Memphis Grizzlies at the Miami-Dade Arena.
The Bulls, on the other hand, went to double overtime on Friday night before holding off the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves 139-131.
In Friday’s win, Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan played 51:56, Bulls guard Zach LaVine 46:33 and Bulls center Nikola Vucevic 45:53.
DeRozan played down the shift on the second night of the home back-to-back against the Heat.
“I hoop all summer for free,” he said. “Why don’t you do it when you get paid for it?”
It turned out to be a record night for the Bulls, with DeRozan finishing with 49 points and LaVine with 39.
The combined 88 points set a record for most by a pair of Bulls teammates in one game, breaking the record of 85 by Michael Jordan and Bill Cartwright in a 1990 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
DeRozan and LaVine also became the second set of Bulls teammates to each score at least 39, joining Jordan (44) and Scottie Pippen (40) in a 1996 game against the Indiana Pacers.
The other race
Not only are the Heat in a playoff race, but so is their G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, who entered Saturday in the sixth and final playoff spot in that Western Conference with three regular season games remaining.
The Heat have rookie big man Nikola Jovia and two-way players Orlando Robinson and Jamal Cain on assignment with the Skyforce. Cain was limited after a 38-point performance by a shoulder injury suffered in the ensuing game.
Radio conflict
With the University of Miami’s NCAA Tournament also Sunday night, Detroit Heat coverage — pregame, game, postgame — instead of airing on 560 WQAM, will be on 96.5 FM and that station’s HD signal.
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