Jimmy Butler took full advantage of the Grizzlies’ decision to use center Zach Edey as the primary defender on him during Tuesday’s play-in game. Butler feasted on the matchup, erupting for 38 points on 12-for-20 shooting, seven rebounds, six assists and three steals in the Warriors’ 121-116 victory.
“He just told me: ‘I don’t care who guards me. Just give me space. Give me the ball. I’ll make something happen,’” coach Steve Kerr said. “And that’s the beauty of Jimmy.”
Butler had more room to shoot from the perimeter but instead chose to attack the basket. Only two of his buckets were three-pointers.
“I’d rather drive into the paint,” Butler said, per Anthony Slater of The Athletic. “Get me a layup, a middy or pass the ball to somebody that’s probably a much better shooter than I am. I think you and probably everybody else want me to shoot more threes. But I like shooting some layups.”
We have more on the Warriors:
- Stephen Curry racked up 37 points on Tuesday. He scored 15 of those points in the final 7:02 as the Warriors clinched the No. 7 seed. They’ll face the Rockets in the next round. “It’s just a reminder that it’s not guaranteed,” Curry said, per ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk. “I don’t care how talented you are. You look around the league, you could argue more talented teams that we have that are on the outside looking in. So you appreciate the moments. That’s why we have been talking for the last two months [about] how important it is to play meaningful games. And now we have a series that’s going to be full of meaningful games.”
- The Warriors have essentially been in playoff mode since the All-Star break. They’ll now get a little time off before the series opener in Houston on Sunday night. “We desperately needed to win this game and get four days [off],” Kerr said. “Our guys have basically been playing knockout games for about three weeks. One high-level game after another. So to get this one, it took 83 games, but we are right where we want to be. Which is back in the playoffs and we got a chance.”
- Forget the seedings. The Warriors are a -220 favorite on Bet MGM’s Sportsbook to win their first-round series vs. the Rockets, Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press tweets.
- Jonathan Kuminga didn’t get off the bench in the play-in game. Draymond Green expects Kuminga to play a role against the Rockets in the first round, Slater tweets. “He’ll contribute (in the Houston series)…The challenge for him is to stay mentally engaged,” Green said. Kuminga will be a restricted free agent this summer.
playoff jimmy popped out on game one. Dubs in 5
37 year old’s Curry and Butler will be guarded by elite low 20-somethings Amen, Tari Eason plus you add in Dillon Brooks. It’s alot to ask these 2 dudes to pop off in a long series against young athletic guys. Plus they won’t have some 7 foot lumbering oaf guarding them. Rockets in 6
rockets problem is not defense but offense. So where is that offense coming from? Its going to be a defensive series. Somebody on the Rockets will need to step up offensively.
Houston has a slightly better offensive and defensive rating than Golden State. link to nba.com
Houston averages slightly more points than GS as well link to espn.com
If I’m betting, I’m picking the Warriors, but Houston is not a bad offensive team.
Rockets might regret putting out weak lineups the last 3 games of the season. They match up better against Clippers than warriors. Houston average a half point less per game than warriors. OKC looks like the only team that will have a easy 1st round. There is not much seperation between 2 through 7 teams in the west.
Houston scored more PPG than GS and has a higher offensive rating. Check the links
The Warriors should be evaluated on what they have been the last 30 games, since its hard to hold the stats from Dennis the menace against them, and isnt a real analysis of the team that will be playing in the series.
GSW has the best and second best players in the series, and you could make an argument for Draymond being the 3rd if he looks like playoff Draymond of yore…
Only 1 of the 2 teams (the Rockets) didn’t make a big roster change at the deadline.
So the season-long numbers for GSW don’t reflect the current roster.
Rockets average age 26.44. Rockets have experiences
Warriors age
Podz 22
Moody 22
Kuminga 22
Santos 22
Quentin Post is a rookie
@coupofthecentury
Yup, it all comes down to Kerr using Kuminga and Jackson-Davis – which he won’t do because he thinks 33 year old Gary Payton 2 is the greatest player who ever lived who can guard 6’11” guys. Steve Kerr will be the main reason why GSW loses with his refusal to bench GP2 and Buddy.
Let’s be honest
Since February 8
brandin podziemski is the 3rd best player in the team
Gary Payton is 4th the 3rd best player in the team
Draymond is no longer a good player, All he knows is turnover and foul out
Payton is not even close to being the 4th best player on the warriors.
GP2 was a vital cog last night, you guys, but make no mistake: if he’s consistently chucking up the 3rd-most FGA on the team, the Dubs are a QUICK out in the playoffs. Podz needs to focus on getting his swagger back, Hield needs to look in the mirror several minutes to convince himself he’s good enough for two 3s and a layup or two each game, and Kerr HAS to play Kuminga. No more of this Chef and Buckets needing damn near 40 apiece to barely squeak out a win; it’s not sustainable. Something more like…..
Steph 27
Jimmy 23
Podz 16
Moody 12
Hield 10
Kuminga 9
GP2 8
Post 7
Dray 6
Gui 2
Looney….just get a few rebounds, assists and play D
Where is the “Kerr-hates-7footers” crowd? Post, a rookie, played 22 minutes last night. His season average was 16 minutes. He started 14 games. How many rookies drafted in the 50s even get off the bench?
There is another 7footer in this draft, projected to go in the Warriors range, and kinda meets Dunleavy’s checklist.
I wouldn’t know … I muted them mostly lol
Post has been really impressive. He needs to bulk a little this offseason and work on this footwork but seeing him improve over time has been fun to watch.
Hopefully he is soaking as much knowledge as he can from Looney.
Post is 25 yrs old. Maybe you should apply that theory to 22 yr old Kuminga.
Edey is just a big body but with limited talent. He just hangs out under the basket with poor foot work. Grizziles should have used jackson under the basket for better defense. edey could have been called for many more fouls by bowling over players.
He is still a rookie and had a lot of rebounds. Can make a more fair assessment in year 2. I thought he played pretty well all things considered. Just needs some more big games under his belt so he isn’t deer in headlights on some of those easy finishes.
He doesn’t seem ready to be a starting center at this point. He needs to work on a shot more than 2 feet from the basket and learn to move his feet more. He reminds me of TJD on the warriors where he will struggle in the NBA if he doesn’t learn a mid range shot.
Be thankful they were missing Wells and Clarke …..
Be thankful the warriors just played a OT game the other night instead of resting playerslike Memphis did in their last game. Be thankful Curry and Butler played injured.
Grizz wouldn’t even be in play-in. If not for injuries. Learn to win. Crying about OT gms. Ha ha win it in regulation. If you play then there is no excuses man. Get the excuses ready for next series.
Same can be said for every team is my point that you missed by a mile. You were the one making excuses for the grizzlies.
One player that had a real dissappointing game was Podz. He was invisible most of his minutes on the floor. Who did noit get enough praise was moody who was the only warrior player to shut down Morant.
It looked like Edey landing on him early on tweaked his groin. I thought Kerr used him less because he may have been playing hurt, since he played 28m after playing 43m in the Clippers game. Its insane that foul wasnt called. Thats a reckless closeout on a shooter and should be an F1. The refs were so f***ing s*** this game…
If podz was playing hurt than I will lay off him. His 3 pot shooting was not there and his drives to the basket wasn’t there too. Edey got away with a lot of fouls. Still can’t believe that foul on Looney late in the game.
The hand holding down Draymond for his 5th was insane to not fix on replay. Yeah Podz grabbed his groin as Edey was landing on him and then was moving pretty ginger after. At one point I thought he hadnt played in a while and just wouldnt return. Hopefully him being able to play through it and go up and get blocks late the refs mess up, means he will be 100% for Sun.
So many bad calls that went against the warriors it was like somebody put some big money down for the grizzlies. That looney foul call is about 99.9% of the time wouldn’t be called with 2 players going up for the rebound.
Yea and the Pippen foul wouldn’t be called 99.9% of the time either. Literally no one touches Jimmy on a missed 5 footer, yet he goes to the line for 2 lol.
Or podz block that wasn’t a foul.
I mean I looked at that one from every angle and it never looked definitive that he got all ball. IMO he did get him on the wrist, but I think that one could’ve gone either way.
2minute report said no foul on Podz it also said foul on PJ so things evened out.
Yep saw that. Also said that the foul at 7 seconds on Curry wasn’t a foul and the ball went off of Curry last. MEM may not have inbound the ball anyways like they didn’t at 5 seconds.
The only way you could see that Podski got all ball was from the angle from the top. I don’t think they showed that one very often maybe just once lol but the other angles from behind the backboard, etc. it was too hard to tell.
Welp, that’s one way to finally win a play-in game. Typical GSW brilliance, then absolute incompetence. I have never seen a team lead by 20+ then lose or make it a late/close than the 2023-present Warriors. That game took like 5 years off my life. I hate Steve Kerr.
Refs also STAY screwing GSW. You all saw it. Draymond and Podz “fouls” were anything but. Sure, GP2 was tackling Ja on the last play (GP2 playing over Kuminga is pure crackhead behavior by Kerr), but there were about a half dozen calls that were just utterly wrong that went against GSW all game long.
I don’t like Houston as a match up as much as yall, they bullied us last time, they are a poor matchup vs GSW, as GSW cant go small vs them. Someone show me how they can beat Sengun, Jalen and Amen
Payton’s defense wasn’t that good on Morant. He got by Payton a few times. Moody was smart and kept in front of Morant. I like the Rockets match better than the Lakers match up. Rockets will double team Curry so in this series the other warriors will need to step up.
Payton is not a top 5 player on this team, he should be playing in a couple 5 minute burst times in 2Q and 3Q. He should not be starting, closing or playing more than 10 MPG. His talent level is the lowest on the team. He does well in short bursts, but longer means the opps will start scoring more on him. His defense ISNT THAT GOOD! Kerr is the most infuriating HC in the league who deserves to be fired for what he’s done with Kuminga.
Kuminga will get more playing time when he improves his overall shooting. JK’s 60% shooting from the FT line is pitiful. Just keep fouling him when he gets hot. He won’t make them. He needs to be able to space the floor playing with Jimmy and Draymond.
Don’t know what you have against Kuminga. He’s 22. He is not your savior. Let the guy grow up. Playing behind Jimmy is best thing Ever for him.
I don’t have anything against Kuminga. His shooting is down from the last two seasons. He is probably pressing because of his contract situation. I think he should sign a two year contract with the Warriors and learn from Jimmy. Kerr said he should watch film of Butler while he was out with the ankle problem.
He is 22 and not ready to be a core guy. His injuries are in part for trying to please team. Just let him grow. He should back Jimmy till Jimmy leaves. He can learn to play with Jimmy some. Just needs time.
> JK’s 60% shooting from the FT line is pitiful.
False. JK is shooting 67% this season. His lifetime is 70%. Below average, but hardly pitiful. Since, Dec 15, he’s shooting 77% from the line.
link to espn.com
> JK will get more playing time when he improves his shooting.
> He needs to be able to space the floor playing with Jimmy
> and Draymond.
That’s not what Kerr cares about. Kerr has said for the last year that he wants JK to pressure the rim, and take fewer jump shots, both in the mid-range and from deep. Draymond and Steph have also said that publicly numerous times. JK has been slow to get the message. Defenses won’t guard JK if he is in the corner (as with Draymond), but they do guard him when he is near the basket or on the wing.
JK can’t help the Warriors as a 3-point shooter, but he can help by shooting > 52 FG% as in past years when he was used to attack the basket from the wing or post. The problem is that the Warriors have a superior player in Butler that also does that. If the Warriors can’t figure out how to use JK at what he does best, they’ll trade him in June.
Davey, who are you talking to?
You say this to US over and over. We get it we know where you stand on Steve Kerr.
But we don’t make the decisions here. And ownership is not reading hoops rumors .com.
You’ve made clear your opinion here. Give it a rest.
Nothing’s going to change by seemingly copying and pasting every single day “I hate Steve Kerr.”
Come up with some other basketball stuff on the game you just watched or the games coming up.
Kerr is the coach. Live with it. Or write a letter to ownership. Not to us over and over and three times here in just this article !!
Gary, its called “venting to my fellow GSW fans.” Also I am replying to arc89.
Also this site has many trolls dedicated to trolling me, so I have to provide evidence for the time these losers try and tell me I loved Kerr. I never have.
I come up with like dozens of original basketball analysis posts a week, sorry you dont like my anti-Kerr content. I will calm down but this Kuminga stuff is really firing me up.
I could make a reply like this to you next time you make drunk posts about how much you hate Moses Moody – which I let you ride on – curious how you cant just ignore the posts I make you dont particularly like?
Davey, settle down peanut. Just root for your team, you don’t have to be such a hater. The warriors are fun. Curry is still curry. Let yourself enjoy it.
At some point its not venting lol. Act like an adult.
Thats the problem, he aint an adult, its just a little kid thinking he is the smartest person on earth and everybody does not know ball.
Yeah well its beyond that. Maybe he can’t help it lol. This could be his only outlet ….
As a rockets fan, I think this is a great series for the rockets. Not because I think they can easily win it, but I think it’s a great test/learning experience for a young group to have. I think most people would agree that the rockets are ahead of where people thought they would be. So no matter what happens, this will be great for them going into next season, where they’ll add another top 10 pick, have a ton of cap space, and another year of these young guys growing together and getting better. The future is bright.
I dont expect the cap space to happen. FVV is the only thing keeping this offense above water. When he was out they could not score at all. Unless they are getting a star to replace him, in which case he is probably the matching salary, I expect them to sign him to more years at a lower AAV. Even declining him and signing a new deal I dont think they can get him below 30M so I doubt they have cap space in any scenario. Also who do you want to sign Kyrie? I dont think this FA class has much.
If you truly believe Fred is that important to the rockets offense you weren’t watching rockets games. He’s literally been one of the main problems. His shooting has been awful, 2-14, 1-11, 3-16, his shooting was beyond bad. Shooting less than 20% from 3 and the field in the majority of games he played. He also lost a step big time, he couldn’t get past anyone. He was awful for the rockets spacing. They can bring in ANYONE and they will be better than what Fred provided this year. I think Fred was big for getting these young guys to learn how to be professionals, but it his actual play was beyond bad this year. He served his purpose, he’s a back up at best at this point.
He is one of the only players on the team that can dribble and play make for others. The team went into a huge skid in early feb when he was missing and the offense was sputtering. If you dont want FVV you need to get another player that can do what he does.
The skid was not just because Fred was out. Jabari was out, Adams and Tari weren’t playing back to backs and the rockets had a run where they were only playing back to back games, more than any other team in the nba this year. Fred’s usage is high (too high) so when he also went out the rockets had to essentially learn a new offense on the fly. There is no such thing as practice once the season starts so they were throwing things together in game, so of course it wasn’t going to look great. With an off season of someone else running the offense, preferably someone who can actually make a wide open shot (Reed Shepard or anyone else) the rockets will be much better next year without him.
I agree with this take, Sengun/Amen/Jalen/Eason are a strong young core but they lack playoff experience. I think they won’t necessarily lose, GSW might fall asleep by letting rotations that dont work stay out there and blow yet another 20+ point lead like they did vs MEM, but this is the best possible learning process. You aren’t gunna get a bigger challenge in a long series than Dray, playoffs Jimmy and Steph coming at them. Youth might best seniority here though, Amen and Sengun have too much size for Kerr’s 4 SG lineups.
Zach on Jimmy was a mistake. Better off playing more zone. Cause I know Grizzlies were missing two of their best defenders Clarke, Wells. That really hurt them. Jimmy is too good too smart. To not take advantage of that. I’ve said it for yrs here. Jimmy is best 2way player of his generation . Thibs biggest player development. Only haters can’t see his value to a team. Playoff Jimmy ……. strikes again.
Warriors will need Kuminga for Rockets. Rockets are young but are deep. They also can go big or small. I disagree Warriors are favorites. This is 50-50 to me. Rockets are still growing up. So are capable of playing even better. Winning 4 gms is not easy. That’s where Warriors have advantage. Warriors young guys have to step up. As does their bench. This is a tough 7 gm series to me. Should be fun.
Jimmy is a great player when locked in but best two-way player of his generation? Nah….He played in the same era as prime LeBron and Kawhi Leonard. While I wouldn’t call Duncan and Butler the same generation their careers crossed and Duncan is probably the best two-way player of all time.
After further thought on the subject I’d have to include Giannis and Anthony Davis as guys that are just as good if not better than Butler as two-way players.
Duncan ???? Read your history man.
Most of great 2way players came before 80s. When it was expected of you. True bigs have an advantage. I’ll give you Duncan maybe Kawhi. I still take Jimmy. He did it longer. Bill Russell and Wilt. Could Dominate both ways. Dominate. Clyde doesn’t get enough respect. There are plenty man. Tough to pick one. Bron stopped playing real D long ago. He is up there not better than Jimmy. Jimmy still takes hardest assignment to stop a guy. You rarely see that today.
Scottie Pippen Jr. is a solid player.
Off topic
Michael Jordan’s son is a father of Scottie Pippen Jr?
Half of a thumbs up.
I also like Scottie Pippen Junior. He’s a nice player and turned himself into a rotation guy from the G league. Bravo. Not sure what your other comment is talking about?
Warriors in 6 because the NBA wants Warriors vs Lakers in Round 2 LOL
I agree NBA does want that. Imo Lakers not winning. Warriors have a better shot. I got Minny and then it is 50-50 Rockets vs Warriors to me. Rockets are ready. Been a long time for them. And they owe Warriors from yrs being knocked out by them. Two very good matchups.
These Rockets are young and there’s a new coaching staff, so this is their 1st playoff experience.
They’re all different than the ones that got knocked out by the Warriors in years past, so they don’t really owe GSW anything.
Poor dj, always the “victim.” You get “trolled” because some of your opinions (or observations?) are way off base or simply a*sinine. Sometimes I think your sole purpose here is to troll and alienate people. I also wonder at times if you even watch a game?!
Case in point last night. Warriors were down 2-11 early in the game. Then Kerr made some substitutions and the game was turned around by a Warriors run. Who were the GSW players on the floor during that run genius? One was definitely a guy you constantly rail against. While he’s not a superstar or perfect, he’s a role player and most of the time does what is expected of him. Often things that don’t show up in the box score. He hustles, tips the ball to his teammates, forces jump balls, and rarely makes mental mistakes among other things. Hell, last night he had more points than your guy Moody in 14 less minutes!! Every team needs players like GP2. Perhaps you need to learn real life hoops isn’t NBA 2K!
Unfortunately, it seems your judgment is often clouded by something else. More than likely due to something off the court. Especially when it comes to Steve Kerr.
Why? Four chips, six finals within eight years and ten years overall. Yet, you still whine and complain that you know ball better than Kerr and the Warriors FO. Instead of enjoying a historical run and witnessing the final years of an excellent, but imperfect head coach and one of the best NBA players of all time.
The LeESPN “experts consensus is for the Warriors to make the 2nd rd:
Jamal Collier: Warriors in 7
Andre Snellings: Warriors in 6
Chris Herring: Warriors in 7
Bobby Marks: Rockets in 6
Jorge Sedano: Warriors in 7
Dave McMenamin: Warriors in 7
Ohm Youngmisuk: Warriors in 7
Ramona Shelburne: Rockets in 7
Final tally:
Houston 2, Warriors 6
The updated odds for all teams to win the NBA Championship are:
link to espn.com
IMO, it’s suprising to see Houston ranked as low as #11, especially given their 2nd place finish in the ultra-competitive West and that they’ll enjoy home-court advantage for their first two playoff series.
For GSW fans, inferring a few probabilities from these odds:
1) prob. of GSW winning Championship: ~6%
Below would be the most difficult path to the Championship, where all our opponents beat the teams they are favored to beat. The probabilities would improve a lot if, say, we face Denver (instead of OKC) and the Knicks (instead of Boston).
2) prob. of GSW beating Rockets in first round: ~70%
3) prob. of GSW beating Lakers in second round: ~38%
4) prob. of GSW beating OKC in third round: 27%
5) prob. of GSW beating BOS in finals: 29%
All 30 teams switching on defense. No basketball IQ from any of these teams. Weakest era ever