Insane finish to Game 5 of 2020 NBA Finals had Twitter in stitches

Twitter had a meltdown over the crazy finish to Game 5 of the 2020 NBA Finals.

The 2020 NBA Finals heard you say they were boring, and they responded with a Game 5 for the ages.

As the Miami Heat faced elimination Friday night, trailing 3-1 in the championship series, Jimmy Butler and Duncan Robinson brought their A-game to overcome the absence of Goran Dragic, a shaky Bam Adebayo and an absolute nuclear performance from LeBron James.

The Los Angeles Lakers were unable to close the Heat out and win the franchise’s 17th championship, but it was an unforgettable battle that made up for a mostly uninteresting series to this point.

Finishing with 35 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists and 5 steals, Butler shot 11-for-19 from the field and finished with his second 30-point triple-double of the Finals. LeBron, meanwhile, was absolutely unstoppable, kicking it into high gear with 40 points, 13 rebounds and 7 assists on 15-of-21 shooting.

The two superstars traded haymakers in the closing minutes, getting to the basket and drawing contact for easy put-backs or getting to the foul line for quick freebies. When Danny Green missed a wide-open 3-pointer in the waning seconds, and Markieff Morris threw a horrible pass out of bounds on the ensuing offensive rebound, NBA Twitter was in absolute shambles.

Twitter provided some great reactions to that Game 5 finish in the NBA Finals

We’ve got to start with some mind-numbing stats to put Butler’s clutch performance in perspective, particularly with how he stepped up down the stretch:

On a night where Butler and LeBron went back and forth down the stretch, the duel between these two leading Finals MVP candidates was not lost on anyone:

https://twitter.com/JoshEberley/status/1314773105219231746?s=20

Markieff Morris quickly stole the Twitter spotlight with a terrible pass. (Somewhere, Danny Green is breathing a sigh of relief)

Considering that his awful defense on the prior possession helped Miami retake the lead, it was pretty clear the Lakers made a mistake relying on Keef too much down the stretch.

Phoenix Suns fans certainly didn’t hesitate to jump in with the heavy sarcasm font:

After such a critical late-game gaffe rendered another tremendous LeBron performance irrelevant, it was hard not to compare Keef’s mistake to the one J.R. Smith made in Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals:

Overall, these tweets attempted to sum up the wild finish to Game 5…

…But in all honesty, Magic Johnson probably did it best:

Here’s to a Game 6 that’s hopefully just as exciting!