Warriors downplay Rockets' physicality after Jimmy Butler's hard fall, Game 2 loss

New York Times

24-04-2025

HOUSTON — Nobody in the Golden State Warriors' direct orbit called Amen Thompson's first-quarter stumble into Jimmy Butler's airborne legs purposeful or malicious. Reckless was the strongest postgame word used for the collision that has altered the trajectory of this increasingly chippy first-round series between the Warriors and Houston Rockets.
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Thompson missed a short floater over a contesting Draymond Green with 2:30 left in the first quarter. Steven Adams, perhaps the league's most rugged offensive rebounder, tried to power through Brandin Podziemski toward the rim and bulldozed left into Green's and Thompson's vicinity just as Thompson, another aggressive offensive rebounder, sprang forward.
This is Houston's style. It succeeds in the possession game by hunting second-chance points. The paint can become a mosh pit. Mosh pits are dangerous. When Adams plowed left, it appeared that Thompson tripped over his or Green's foot while stepping forward, sending him spearing through Green and Adams right into Butler's legs at the top of his jump.
'I was trying to box out Thompson,' Green said. 'Somehow, he ended up under Jimmy's legs. I didn't see it.'
'Inadvertent,' Steve Kerr made sure to call it.
The Warriors lost Game 2 in Houston 109-94, tying the series at a game apiece. That was the short-term impact of Butler's hard fall. They were down 22-15 when he left. They were down 40-20 when Podziemski — who was sick all Wednesday with a stomach issue — joined him in the locker room. Without two of their four most impactful players, they didn't have enough to stay within reach of a desperate Rockets team that received 38 points from Jalen Green in a bounce-back performance.
The longer-term impact of Butler's fall is unknown. He had an X-ray in Houston's arena that ruled out any obvious significant damage, but his MRI in San Francisco on Thursday will give the Warriors' medical team a clearer and more detailed look.
If it's confirmed as a contusion with no deeper damage, which was the belief late Wednesday night, it becomes a pain tolerance issue that Steph Curry and Jonathan Kuminga both dealt with recently. Curry missed two games. Kuminga missed one game. Butler had a similar injury in December 2021 and missed four games.
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But those instances were treated with regular-season caution. There is playoff urgency surrounding this scare. Thirty minutes after the fall, a pained Butler walked down the tunnel back from the X-ray room to the visiting locker room at a snail's pace. The limp wasn't nearly as pronounced when he left the arena two hours later.
'Jimmy always says he's going to be fine,' Kerr said. 'But we have to wait and see the MRI.'
Steve Kerr: 'Jimmy always says he's fine.'
MRI tomorrow
Kerr said their feeling was the Butler fall was an 'inadvertent' accident in a jumbled up rebound situation and credited Houston for outplaying them pic.twitter.com/7rc9BMH4nh
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) April 24, 2025
The Butler crash and its ramifications only upped the temperature of a series already heading toward a boiling point. Dillon Brooks spent the opening minutes barking at the Warriors' bench. Curry and Jalen Green put some extra charge into the tail end of two jump balls. Tari Eason adjusted Gary Payton II's headband and threw a towel at Pat Spencer.
Draymond Green was in the mix of just about every dust-up, either committing hard fouls or absorbing hard fouls. Jalen Green was whistled for a flagrant after glancing at Draymond's chin with a forearm shiver. Jalen and Draymond had words after Jalen told him to stop flopping. In the fourth quarter, Draymond went chest to chest with Fred VanVleet during a timeout, causing an elongated shouting match between both sides and another mosh pit that needed separation. That's when Eason threw a towel and picked up a technical.
'I thought it was a little bit less physical than Game 1,' Draymond Green said.
The Warriors made it a point not to complain about Houston's physicality postgame, instead blaming their poor defense on Jalen Green as the night's biggest problem, understanding that this series will need to be won in a rugged environment when it restarts in San Francisco.
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'Actually I might agree with (Draymond that it was less physical),' Curry said. 'There were a couple crashes that happened out there, but we know what they're trying to do — use their size advantage at times to try to bully us. We held up a pretty good fight both games. We just let Jalen get going a little bit and he got free to space. There's no reason he should get up 18 3s.'
More than one person noted postgame that Curry only has six free throws in 77 minutes in this series, but there was an understanding that a few extra whistles wouldn't have solved Wednesday's problem.
They need Podziemski to recover and Butler to heal quickly. They need a better, more revved-up version of Kuminga, who went from out of the rotation to 26 minutes in Game 2, scoring 12 points but mostly floating around without a high level of impact on either end. They need the two days of rest before Saturday and their first home playoff game since 2023.
'Houston played great,' Kerr said. 'They came out with amazing force defensively. Obviously Green got going. It was their night.'
(Photo of Steph Curry and Jalen Green wrestling for the ball: Tim Warner / Getty Images)