MINNEAPOLIS – Steph Curry sat at his Target Center locker, headphones in tuning out the world. The Warriors had just outlasted the Minnesota Timberwolves for a 99-88 Game 1 win on the road Tuesday night, 48 hours after celebrating their gutsy Game 7 win against the Rockets in Houston. What should have been another jubilant environment was meek and gloomy at best, with Curry severely limping back to the team bus.
From the way he was bouncing around the court, and the sight of his last three of the night splashing through from a 25-foot waterfall of arc, Curry was in for a game to remember to open the Western Conference semifinals. His night lasted 13 minutes, in which he scored 13 points and made a trio of threes.
The sight of him grabbing at the back of his left leg could have sucked the life out of what should've been a depleted squad. The Warriors ruling Curry out with a strained left hamstring soon after his exit should have spelled doom for the Warriors, who held a 10-point lead when he limped to the locker room.
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SIGN UP HERE This is why you trade for Jimmy Butler.
The dream was to pair Curry with him, two alphas changing the course of a season as they have ever since Butler put on a Warriors jersey, switched to No. 10 and added three roman numerals to honor his late father. But as an insurance plan, Butler is about as reliable as it gets when healthy.
“It’s massive,” Steve Kerr said. “The game settles down. I mean, you could see the last six, eight minutes, all we were doing was side-ball screens for Jimmy and we were even willing to take shot clock violations at that point. It was all about protecting the ball, and Jimmy is, I think, as good as anybody – any star in the game – at reading the game, understanding how to control the tempo and control the time and score, understanding everything that’s happening, and putting the ball in his hands in a situation like that is pretty comforting.”
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Comforting. That’s about as pinpoint of a word as Kerr could have landed on.
Butler, in the Warriors’ grueling first-round series, had a total of three turnovers and never had a multi-turnover game -- finishing three of the seven games without a single giveaway. The game doesn’t speed up with Butler and it doesn’t come to a halting stop. It flows, finding a state of Rhythm and Blues meeting brute strength.
Buddy Hield was the Warriors’ leading scorer with 24 points, catching fire for 22 second-half points behind five 3-pointers. But it was Butler who made a statement, not by racking up points, but by flying around the floor and playing even bigger than a 7-foot-1 Rudy Gobert, who stands six inches taller than him.
In the first half alone, Butler had five offensive rebounds and finished with seven, talling 11 boards overall. His teammates refer to him as “Megatron,” channeling his inner Calvin Johnson to go up and grab rebounds that feel out of reach for most.
“Incredible anticipation,” Kerr said. “And I think that’s one of the things that separates great players, is the anticipation of what’s happening at all times. Both ends of the floor, Jimmy’s got that sense.”
Butler finished the win with 20 points on 7-of-20 shooting, inefficient to his standards, but was a plus-15 in 41 minutes two nights after giving Golden State 45 minutes. He scored 14 of his 20 points in the second half as Minnesota tried to shift the momentum, his 11 rebounds led the Warriors and were the same amount as Gobert, plus his eight assists were a game-high, as were his two steals – tied with three of his teammates.
Kerr doesn’t expect Curry to play Thursday in Game 2. Curry is getting an MRI on Wednesday, and missing multiple games is a real possibility. Without the Chef, Butler knows there will be a bigger scoring onus put on him.
“I guess it’s going to be my job to draw a little more attention, probably not as much as does draw, but I got to find a way to score and get everybody else involved,” he said.
But he knows who he is and isn’t going to pretend to be Curry or anybody else.
“I’m not a volume shooter,” Butler said. “Never have been, probably never will be. But I’m going to play the right way. If my guys are open, I’m going to pass it, I’m going to yell, ‘Shoot it!’ and if they don’t shoot it, I’m probably going to yell at them for not shooting the ball. And I’m just going to have to be efficient.
“I’m going to have to play hard. I know I’m going to have a lot of minutes coming my way. I train for this. I’ll be ready for it.”
In the three games Butler played without Curry after the trade, he averaged 19.7 points, 6.0 rebounds and 6.7 assists. The NBA playoff version of him always finds an extra level. Now he’ll need to tap into a new dimension for however long Curry is sidelined.
There’s the comfort and calmness he brings to his teammates, and the respect and tenacity he demands from them as well. This is why you trade for Jimmy Butler. Not to be Steph Curry, but to be the ultimate safety valve in case of emergency, ripping the hearts of a team and crowd that feels any sense of an advantage going their way.