There is a first time for everything, and the Warriors experienced one this week that they never wish to go through again.
They lost a game in which Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler III combined for 58 points.
The Warriors were 8-0 when Curry and Butler totaled at least 50 points until San Antonio’s Harrison Barnes struck them down with a game-winning 3-pointer Thursday night at Chase Center. Fifty points always had been enough, and it should be a successful offensive formula.
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The offensive stall against the Spurs was elsewhere. A repeat might not be difficult to overcome Friday night against the depleted Trail Blazers in Portland, but surely would put the Warriors in jeopardy Sunday against the Clippers – and any postseason game.
Curry and Butler carrying their respective scoring loads only can take the offense so far. Butler doesn’t beat teams with buckets. His stated goal is finding buckets for his team, particularly when Curry is off the floor.
Consider that Golden State’s best quarter against the Spurs was its 37-21 advantage in the third. The defense was tight, the offense flowing. It was a 10-assist quarter, and Butler had five. His last two dimes, finding Brandin Podziemski and Jonathan Kuminga in the paint, provided an 88-76 lead.
That problem was that Butler’s playmaking efforts too often went unexploited.
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Podziemski, whose hot streak of games ended with seven points on 3-of-11 shooting from the field, including 1 of 5 from deep. Moses Moody, whose scoring efficiency has regressed over the past month, finishing with seven points on 3-of-11 shooting, including 1 of 7 from distance.
It wasn’t just the low efficiency from those two starters that doomed the Warriors against the Spurs. It was the number of misses on open looks – generally set up by passes from Butler. His role on offense is to generate a high-percentage shot for a teammate and, failing that, look to score himself. Same as it was in Miami.
Butler’s 28 points – his highest total as a Warrior – against San Antonio came not out of desire but out of necessity. By the fourth quarter, he realized Podziemski and Moody were struggling to score, so he put in 13 points. Butler’s two assists in the fourth went to, yes, Curry.
The external pleas for Butler to be more aggressive with his shot is short-sighted and too simple a solution to the non-Steph minutes. Butler is an opportunistic scorer who makes the game easier for his other four teammates.
Butler led two Heat teams to the NBA Finals, not because he turned into Curry or some high-volume scoring machine. In 64 playoff games with Miami, Playoff Jimmy averaged 24.7 points. Averaged 17.6 field-goal attempts per game. He had the occasional outburst but mostly lifted the games of such teammates as Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson, Gabe Vincent, Max Strus, Caleb Martin, Kendrick Nunn and Haywood Highsmith.
Butler’s best attribute might be getting teammates paid by maximizing the attributes.
Butler going into “takeover mode” is best limited to emergency situations. He can have such moments during a game, but Golden State’s fortunes during the non-Steph minutes are not predicated on his scoring.
When Podziemski and Moody are making shots, usually off Butler’s playmaking, the Warriors can survive and sometimes thrive during the non-Steph minutes. They must know by now that their patience generally will be rewarded with open looks. If Moody can’t reverse his offensive slippage – 38 percent from the field, 29.7 from deep over the last 13 games – the offense will suffer.
When Buddy Hield and Kuminga are at their best – always a crapshoot – they can bring welcome smoke to action when Curry gets a few minutes to rest his 37-year-old bones.
Whether the Warriors land in the play-in tournament or the playoffs, they’re going to need those 50 points per game from Curry and Butler. They will on some occasions get more.
But it’s up to the others to fill the void, or else the Warriors will be prey for teams much better than the San Antonio Spurs.