Jimmy Butler helped the Warriors clinch a Game 7 victory and a second-round date with the Timberwolves, scoring 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting while also contributing eight rebounds and seven assists in Sunday’s 103-89 series-clinching victory over Houston.
Butler played just eight minutes in Game 2 due to a pelvic injury that also cost him Game 3, and he had a forgettable Game 5, with just eight points on 2-of-10 shooting in a one-sided loss. But his presence made a difference for the Warriors during the second half of the season and over the course of the first-round playoff series, prompting team owner Joe Lacob to express to Sam Amick of The Athletic on Sunday that he’s glad he signed off on the deadline deal for the star forward.
“Sometimes you get them right,” Lacob told Amick with a laugh. “That’s all I can say.”
Given the ugly way that Butler’s time in Miami ended, there were questions about whether it would make sense to give up multiple assets to acquire him and sacrifice major cap flexibility to sign him to a maximum-salary extension. But general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. insisted Butler was worth that risk and Lacob is happy he trusted his GM.
“Yeah, there were (concerns about Butler),” Lacob said. “But you do your analysis, you make your choices, and, yeah, it was a little bit of a risk. But we’ve got to take risks in this life. And he’s worth every freaking penny. That’s all I can say. He’s fantastic.”
Here’s more on the Warriors, one of eight NBA teams still in the hunt for a title:
- While no Warrior had more rebounds (10) or assists (7) than Stephen Curry on Sunday, it was Buddy Hield who unexpectedly led the team in scoring, pouring in 33 points while matching an NBA record with nine three-pointers in a Game 7. A nine-year veteran, Hield played in the postseason for the first time in 2024, but didn’t see many minutes in Philadelphia’s first-round loss. As Marcus Thompson II writes for The Athletic, the veteran sharpshooter embraced the opportunity to play a larger role this time around. “I never been in this situation before,” Hield said. “Just trying to seize the moment. Relish the moment. Just be in the moment. … and enjoy the moment.”
- After earning a start in Game 6, veteran guard Gary Payton II was unable to suit up for Game 7 on Sunday due to an illness, writes Kristie Rieken of The Associated Press. “He’s just sick as a dog,” Kerr said before the game. “Woke up ill and didn’t go to shootaround. Hasn’t eaten. No way (he) can play.” Although Payton played a regular rotation role during the series, Golden State struggled during his minutes — the team had a -17.7 net rating when he was on the court and a +8.2 mark when he wasn’t.
- Draymond Green racked up four technical fouls and two flagrants in the Warriors’ seven-game series vs. Houston, but kept his emotions in check in Game 7 to help the team advance to round two, writes Anthony Slater of The Athletic. “He’s the key to our team,” head coach Steve Kerr told Slater. “He’s the guy who can drive winning. But he can also drive losing, frankly. What makes him great is also his kryptonite. His emotion, his passion, his competitive fire. … When Draymond is centered and organized and poised and Steph is taking care of the ball, it’s so easy for the rest of the group just to follow and do their jobs.”
- According to Kerr, Green “set the tone” ahead of Game 7 at a players-only meeting on Saturday, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. “Basically, he owned up to losing his poise in Game 6, and I agreed with him,” Kerr said after Sunday’s victory. “I thought the flagrant foul (in the first quarter of Game 6) was a tone-setter, and he knew it and so he talked to the group and said, ‘I got to be poised and I have to be better, and we’re going to come in here tomorrow and get it done.’ And I think his emotional stability tonight, just his poise from the start, set a great tone.”
- Butler and Green will be public enemies number one and two in Minnesota during the conference semifinals, according to Jon Krawcznyski of The Athletic, who notes that Butler’s messy exit in 2018 and Green’s frequent criticisms of Rudy Gobert have earned the duo the ire of Timberwolves fans.
What stands out the most in game 7 Green just played great defense and didn’t let his emotions set back the team. He stood up for his idiot actions in previous games and just played ball. Hope he plays rest of the playoffs focused on playing the game and nothing more.
Dray was solid. He does what no other Warrior does. But please ….. Sengun says 22.6 pts, 12.6 reb, 5.6 ast for the series.
Segun is going to get you 20 points with his offensive skill level. His passing for a big man is almost as good as Jokic. The series was never about the best scorers on each team but who else will step up. Thankfully Buddy steped up in game 7.
arc, yes, that’s all well and good, but I am still disappointed that the Warriors and Greymond closed out that perfect first half with a poor emotional reaction.
Everything was going so well and you thought Green could be a normal dude out there who plays hard.
But once again he proved that’s not possible by karate chopping Fred after the reach in foul on the arm.
It’s just shake my head material.
Like just once in a playoff season, can we have a hard-working dude who gets the most out of his body that he possibly can with hustle and grit.., play without the garbage? Just once?
Well, I can’t wait to see what happens against the Wolves… should be entertaining.
Green needs to play smart and when he does the warriorsare tough to beat but his outburst hurt the warriors not help them. He better keep his head in the game next series because the wolves have some enforcers and smack talkers on their team too.
@arc same goes for you, I wish the opposite of that because WE JUST WON BECAUSE OF IT!!!
Why do you hate winning?! This is what WINNING looks like. You want more of G5 and G6 type crap.
Play it real time and you will see its obviously accidental. VV hits his arm and then his arm hits VV. Its amazing how you can imply intent at x20 slo mo. In no other situation does the fouled player get held responsible for where the arm thats fouled flails after the other player hits it. How is he responsible for where his arm goes AFTER the contact?
I dont even know if they were calling it a tech for the flail, or for him going to him after he was down, where he didnt seem to be doing anything wrong. Poor refereeing the whole series, but especially with Dray. Like 2 of his techs and one flagrant were utterly insane calls that never happen with any other player. Like was there a flagrant when Embiid stepped on G Wills face 2 years ago? It was way worse than Greens feet bumping Tari after they fell together, but everyone knew both were accidental. Eason then tries to start something with Green and he gets held responsible.
Green isnt perfect, but he deserved maybe 2 techs through the series and nothing else. People also dont seem to understand a core of what happens with Green. Everyone sees him screaming all animated at refs, but fail to understand that he isnt insulting them while doing it. Screaming “Theres obvious contact, your calling it on the other side, give us the same whistle”,or “He hit me on the arm” over and over, just isnt what gets you a tech. To be fair in the replays he is often right about the supposed fouls. He screams about the technicalities of the calls which is why they let him. Its also extremely loud in the arenas so you do have to yell if the person is 20 feet away. The one place they let him get away with stuff is screaming and1 right at them all the time, but its almost his thing where he does it nearly every time he shoots in traffic.
Hey Gary, Michael Jordan was 100x worse than anything Draymond has ever done. Bully ball WINS. You do what it takes to WIN. Dray WINS when he plays rough and uses his mental game to destroy them physically. Who cares about “playing the game the right way”? It doesn’t win!
I hope Draymond continues doing whatever he is doing because we are winning. Winning is ALL that matters, Gary! I hope Draymond continues to hack and punch and kick and not get kicked out and we win!
It was a well orchestrated game 7 by the Warriors. Hats off to Buddy Hield for having a legacy game when needed the most.
I watched that entire game. Buddy Hield was amazing in the 1st half and then let Steph do his thing in the 2nd half. Draymond and JB were stifling Houston’s guys.
The bench only had 3 points all game long and they still won which shows how impressive and how effective the starters were. Kerr adjusted and saw that Houston did not have enough offense and Udoka didn’t adjust and kept relying on the 2 big lineup too much. They had NO answer for the zone that Kerr implemented. It was a well deserving victory to Kerr and silence some of the Kerr haters in here. That being said Houston is trash. Jalen Green should be investigated for NBA betting after the series he had with the exception of G2. Sengun is too soft around the rim. I counted atleast 5-7 shots that literally rolled off the rim because he was out of it last night. Amen Thompson was the only guy who showed up before his injury. Houston Rockets were the worst offensive playoff basketball team I have seen in my life. There are zero sets, zero cutting. It was legit the most boring offense I have ever seen. That being said, I expected GSW to win this series (which they did). I think Wolves/Warriors will be a fantastic series of individual matchups. Butler on Edwards/ Green on Randle/ etc. It will go 7 I believe because both teams are evenly matched. It’s a coin flip by I have Wolves due to the lack of size from GSW. If McDaniels shows up, Wolves will win this series. Thank god Houston is gone from the bracket though.
Congrats to Arc, Gary and Giants74 and Aristole for Dubs victory.
Jalen Green is the same exact player he was when he left the G League Ignite team. Zero devolpment. I am not surprised he performed the way he did, I am actually surprised people expected differently.
Yeah, I’ve seen people talk about he’s made a jump this year and I don’t see it at all. His team improved but he’s the same inefficient chucker he’s always been. Absolutely shriveled in these playoffs.
I really think it is the Ignite team screwed up Green and Kuminga. It was owned by the NBA. They put little effort into it. The high schools in the area have better facilities. When I heard where they were playing, I thought, “The short bus school?”. There is Special Education school next door.
It almost seemed like his first 2 seasons were just a total waste since they were playing such bad fundamental basketball under Silas with like Christian Wood and stuff. He is like 2 years behind on development at being a slightly better Jordan Poole, mostly, besides playmaking.
I got to say the Rockets have alot of talent but needs offense. they have so many assets with draft picks and young players their GM could make them a championship team. I think Randle is the key to the series for the wolves. If he can score 30 a game with his size it will be too much for the warriors to over come.
Arc I think it will Jaden McDaniels who will be the key. If he can knock down that corner 3 at a high clip, it’ll be difficult to pack the paint which would let Randle and Edwards attack the rim, allowing Gobert to clean up alot of the miss FGA.
My guess is McDaniels will be guarding Curry a lot being he is a great defender. That might tire out his legs for the corner 3s he seems to always hit. Warriors are going to need to guard the line because Reid always hits a lot of 3s against the warriors. Conley can come up big if he is not being guardedon the 3 point line.
The Warriors want you to force a bunch of high energy 2s in traffic and then try to keep up on defense. Its what they do to Luka just make him work hard for his points, while keeping the others in check, and then making him work on defense. You will notice Luka almost always is useless and gassed vs GSW the last 4 years in the 4th. It was what they did to him in the WCF. Most of the MIN starters you cant do that with, but Randle and Gobert can get worked out of effectiveness.
To honest with you, I didn’t think the Dubs would win. It was a pretty amazing turn around from where they were before the Butler trade. They had like a .5 point differential. After the trade, it is 9. I wondering how far their momentum will carry them.
They need to mic up both Green and Edwards for the series. It would be the funniest thing to hear the 2 biggest trash talkers in the NBA going at it.
Its amazing how many supposedly fit guys go at Steph and walk away huffin and puffin with arms on their heads or bent over gasping for breath…
Thank You Lacob for Playoff Butler !!!!!
Everything is possible with Butler!!!!
Let’s go Warriors !!!!!!!
Kuminga is completely checked out. It’s unfortunate. In the meantime, Podz and Moody got to experience real game 7 jitters and developing. Let’s play Santos!
Yeah, that was a brutal performance for him. Nobody is going to touch that RFA deal. He is lost out there and is truly one dimensional player.
Future Bull lmao
Kuminga can say bye to the big contract he was wanting unless he has a big series in the next round. It would be best he signs a 1 year deal and test FA next year unrestricted agent.
I doubt that happens. The one year deal is sooooo low. He will still easily get 20-25M a year. I do think he has had terrible luck this year where he was rolling right before the injury, and has been comepletely out of rhythm since returning with his 3pt never coming back to how he was shooting before getting hurt. He is still super young and does enough well already to be a valuable player on most teams.
I dont know if GSW can find a deal that makes sense. I think clearly the most obvious is like Kuminga and a protected pick for Cam Johnson who would give them 3pt shooting Kuminga cant with lower upside.
I wouldnt be super shocked to see him get like 4/90M from GSW who can try and incorporate him in the pre season with the roster they have, and then he is a salary they move at the deadline if it doesnt work. Like his fit with Butler could be moot if they use Butler to get a different star this offseason after rehabbing his value. Like Jimmy conveniently matches salary perfect for KD/Giannis/LBJ/AD so the roster could have different needs by the start of next season if you get a shooter where Kumingas fit improves.
I dont know how broken the relationship is, where Im sure Kuminga wants to play, but it also seems obvious that he has seriously struggled since his return and has no rhythm at all.
Its a 50/50 chance they just let him go. One expert here sais all the warriors will be is a 1st round pick for him.
Buddy caught fire at the right time! Houston is still owned by Steph
While I’m not a fan of the Rockets in general, I have to admit they were perfectly equipped to beat the “go small” Warriors. Unfortunately for them, when you have a lifetime loser like Dillion Brooks on your team, you will never win a title.
The line to apologize to me when you said I was a stupid homer or “clueless” or “trolling” and “GSW’s window has closed”, for calling GSW a top 4 Western Conference team at the start of this season, starts here:
Wow! Now the arrogant mofu Davey J wants to be apologies to for being criticized. Umm…What? You are obviously trolling again. You called Kerr an idiot for playing “Small Ball”. You said they need to get rid of Heild. Well guess what. Kerr went small and Buddy came up big. If Kerr went by what you said, the Warriors would have been on vacation two weeks ago. You are completely wrong. And after all the hateful things you said Kerr’s murdered father, nobody owes you an apology. You owe Kerr an apology.