Hobbled Jimmy Butler is ‘back in a big way’ as Warriors send Rockets to the brink

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SAN FRANCISCO — Seated at his locker with a bulky ice pack wrapped around his lower back, Jimmy Butler suggested rewatching a specific sequence from late in the second quarter of the Golden State Warriors’ Game 4 win over the Houston Rockets. It best represented how stiff and immobile he felt for a large portion of his return from that hard Game 2 fall and painful glute contusion.

“Did you see me on that chase-down of Dillon Brooks?” Butler asked.

With under a minute left in the first half, Steph Curry whipped an ill-timed cross-court pass that Brooks easily intercepted in stride with a runway out in front. Butler was the nearest Warriors player, so he turned on the jets to get back in transition.

Butler succeeded, fouling Brooks hard enough to prevent the layup. Brooks missed both free throws. Butler’s hustle wiped two Houston points off the board. It was one of the many small but significant contributions he made in the Warriors’ 109-106 win to secure a 3-1 series lead.

But Butler wasn’t discussing the result of the sequence. He was discussing how he felt and must’ve looked while doing it. Watch him run — or, as Butler described it, watch him scoot. This is a compromised stride.

When Butler went up for his ninth rebound of the series late in the first quarter of Game 2, both his legs were completely wiped out by a stumbling Amen Thompson. It sent him crashing to the floor from a height and at an angle he said caused a worse injury than the one he suffered on a similar fall earlier in his career.

“That s— hurt like hell,” Butler said.

The left side of Butler’s pelvis took the brunt of the crash, generating a soreness that has made it difficult for him to fully lift his left leg while running in the days since. He tried to push to play in Game 3 — even saying he shot the heck out of it during a stationary pregame workout on Saturday night — but acknowledged his mobility would’ve been too compromised. So he accepted Rick Celebrini’s decision to hold him out.

Celebrini is the Warriors’ lead medical decision maker. In his two-plus months with the franchise, Butler has come to appreciate the detailed and cautious approach from Celebrini and his built-out staff. But he entrusts his daily regimen to Armando Rivas, the trainer and close friend whom Butler met early in his career in Chicago and who has followed him to every stop since.

“My dog Armando has been working every minute and hour to make sure I was able to play,” Butler said. “He’s been doing it since I went down. The training staff here has been incredible.”

Butler wasn’t overly aggressive to open Game 4. He only took three first-half shots and scored four points. But the game got chippy in the second quarter and Brooks got chirpy with Butler, which he said revved his engines.

“Your body starts to warm up. You start to feel a little bit better. You gain confidence,” Butler said. “People start talking to you. Then good things happen.”

People meaning Dillon Brooks?

“Yep,” Butler said, later adding: “I don’t like Dillon Brooks.”

Butler made a 9-footer and two free throws as part of the Warriors’ 13-0 run to open the third quarter. He started to move with a little more fluidity. He ratcheted up the aggressiveness further in the fourth quarter, playing all 12 minutes and scoring 14 points to finish with a team-high 27.

That included a crucial power layup with 2:12 left to put the Warriors up three and five free throws in the final 58 seconds to seal it. On a night that the Rockets missed 12 free throws, Butler went 12 of 12 at the line.

“If this were the regular season, he’d probably miss another week or two,” Kerr said of Butler’s injury (and Butler later agreed). “But it’s the playoffs and he’s Jimmy Butler. This is what he does.”

His teammates recognized it.

“The first three quarters, he couldn’t move,” Draymond Green said. “Not sure how he started moving in the fourth quarter. Yet he never complained. He stuck with it.”

With the game tied at 104 and just under a minute left, Butler received a pass in the corner with the shot clock nearing zero. He was forced to take a rushed 3 and was bailed out by Brooks, who committed a silly foul to give Butler the first three of five clutch free throws.

But it was the night’s final defensive rebound that everybody was discussing. With the Warriors up one with under 10 seconds left, Green stoned an Alperen Şengün drive and forced an errant hook shot, but the bruising Steven Adams appeared to be in position for another offensive rebound. If he got it, he would’ve been in position for a putback to give Houston the lead with under five seconds left.

But Adams never got the opportunity. While Adams was battling for position with Kevon Looney on the floor, Butler came skying in from the corner and ripped the defensive rebound off the rim.

“My rebound!” he yelled toward the Warriors’ bench after getting it.

“I looked up, and I thought it was (Jonathan) Kuminga out there flying,” Green said. “It was Jimmy.”

“Just looked like he was in slow motion,” Kerr said. “Just the elevation. Looked to me like he was just head and shoulders above everybody.”

“I told Dray, if you get a stop, I will get the rebound,” Butler said. “He got the stop, and I got the rebound.”

Here’s the television view of the sequence.

DRAY GOT THE STOP 🚫 pic.twitter.com/UHEW3zUIJS

— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) April 29, 2025

Then here’s the back view. You can see Butler time it perfectly from the corner.

Here’s the late Draymond Green stop on Alperen Sengun, the flying Jimmy Butler rebound from the baseline and Green’s ensuing celebration.

Warriors lead the series 3-1 over the Rockets pic.twitter.com/zRdIYAZCLn

— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) April 29, 2025

Butler absorbed the foul, made both free throws and sent the Warriors to Houston with a chance to close out the series and give his aching body a few extra days of rest.

“I’m back,” Butler said. “I’m back in a big way.”

(Photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)

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