Jimmy Butler brushes off rest on way to 53-point game for Bulls

Source – Nick Friedell ESPN Staff Writer

PHILADELPHIA — Fred Hoiberg saw that look in Jimmy Butler’s eye.

Hoiberg, the first-year coach of the Chicago Bulls, knew exactly what it meant. Despite the fact that Butler didn’t participate in Thursday’s shootaround because of a sprained right ankle and was questionable to even play against the Philadelphia 76ers, he knew Butler wasn’t coming out in the middle of the best performance of his career, a 53-point showcase in which the All-Star swingman did just about everything for the Bulls.

“It was one of those looks like, ‘If you take me out, I’m going to quit,'” Hoiberg said after the Bulls’ 115-111 overtime victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. “That kind of thing. So I kept him in there.”