Nickelback Offers Heat’s Jimmy Butler Something Real, ‘To Come Sing Live’

CHICAGO — Whether making a statement about his team’s loss or otherwise, Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler yelling Nickelback in the locker room following last week’s overtime loss against the Orlando Magic at the Amway Center caught the attention of the Canadian band.

On Friday, the band took to Twitter to inform Butler: “We’re going on tour this summer, contact us if you want to come sing live.”

The message was preceded by, “He’s not like Jimmy. . . to say sorry!”

That comes from the band’s “How You Remind Me,” which includes the lyric, “It’s not like you to say sorry.”

Butler, as he usually does, not only played his post-game playlist at maximum volume, but also sang along, as he also often does.

Butler has been working for the past year on producing a country album with a variety of singers, with friendships in the genre including Luke Combs, Luke Bryan and Filmore, who appear in the opening of Bryan’s “Light It Up” video. He has also expressed enjoying Taylor Swift.

Butler early in his career told NBC Sports: “I like country music. I listen to a little hip-hop. But I try to listen to the people I’ve associated 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.”

The Heat finished with a clear bye lead Saturday night against the Chicago Bulls at the United Center, inactive since Wednesday night’s win over the Memphis Grizzlies at Miami-Dade Arena.

The Bulls, by contrast, went into double overtime on Friday night before beating the shorthanded 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 moving on to the second straight night at home against the Heat.

“I do basketball all summer for free,” he said. “Why not do it when you get paid for it?”

It turned out to be a record night for the Bulls, with DeRozan closing with 49 points and LaVine with 39.

The combined 88 points set a record for the most by a pair of Bulls teammates in one game, breaking the record of 85 held by Michael Jordan and Bill Cartwright in a 1990 win 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.

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 games remaining in the regular season.

The Heat have rookie great Nikola Jovia and both players Orlando Robinson and Jamal Cain assigned to Skyforce. Cain was limited after a 38-point performance with a shoulder injury sustained in the following game.

With the University of Miami’s NCAA Tournament game also on Sunday night, coverage of the Heat’s game in Detroit (pregame, game, and postgame) instead of airing on 560 WQAM will air on 96.5 FM and that station’s HD signal.