Jimmy Butler III let out a single sniffle as he sat down at the podium following the Game 5 loss that ended the Warriors’ season.
“We’re not going to use anything an excuse,” Butler said.
The snot in his nostrils, however, served only as further evidence to a case that had been building by his play on the court for much of this Western Conference semifinal series against the Minnesota Timberwolves. There was something wrong with “Playoff Jimmy.”
Still hampered by the hard fall he took in Round 1, fighting off an illness that cropped up before Game 4, the 35-year-old Butler wasn’t able to carry the Warriors when they needed him most. With Steph Curry watching from the sidelines, Minnesota contained him to 17 points on 4-of-11 shooting from the field and 9-of-11 from the foul line in the Warriors’ 121-110 defeat Wednesday night.
In his first postseason with Golden State, Butler averaged 19.2 points, 6.6 rebounds and 5.2 assists in 36 minutes over 11 games, but was forced to miss a game in their first-round series against Houston after suffering a pelvic and deep gluteal muscle contusion in Game 2.
While Butler downplayed the impact of the injury, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said, “He was definitely compromised all series. I think the injury in Houston definitely impacted him. He’s been playing through pain.”
In four games since Curry strained his left hamstring, Butler scored more than 20 points only once — when he dropped 33 in Game 3, which was also the closest the Warriors came to pulling out a win at less than full strength. Butler attempted 26 shots in that game — plus another nine from the free-throw line — but failed to get off as many tries between Games 4 and 5, going a combined 9-of-20 for 34 points to go with his 6-of-13 effort for 17 points without Curry in their Game 2 loss.
“Once Steph went out, it changed everything for our whole team,” Kerr said. “But especially for Jimmy.”
“Their defense just started loading up on him,” said Draymond Green, who finished 4-of-11 for 10 points — one of three Warriors to attempt as many shots as Butler, along with Brandin Podziemski (11-of-19) and Jonathan Kuminga (11-of-23).
After finishing a game-worst minus-30 in Game 4, Butler was a team-worst minus-17 in 42 minutes Wednesday.
“Obviously it’s very different whenever you don’t have Steph on the floor,” Butler said. “I feel like everyone has to take on more and everybody has to play a little bit of a different role, but that’s just the game. Injuries happen. But it is a lot different with Steph not out there.”
Blitzing Butler looks different than when it happens to Curry. He likes to drive and decide from there to take it to the rim himself or find the open man on the perimeter. The Timberwolves had so much size and athleticism that they were able to match up with Butler one-on-one and take away his potential outlets.
“Mostly we tried to take away his playmaking,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “Fortunately we have a number of guys who were able to body him. Jaden (McDaniels) has length. Julius (Randle) has physicality. Ant(hony Edwards) has physicality. Even Rudy did a really good job when he got switched on him. Over time, that can take its toll on somebody when you have to face that many defenders.”
It didn’t help that, without Curry, the Warriors didn’t have many shooters for Butler to find. They finished 11-of-39 (28.2%) from 3 in Game 5 and shot 34% from distance over the course of the series while going long stretches without a single bucket from downtown.
“I think the biggest thing in this series was without the spacing that Steph gives us, Minnesota did a great job of just playing us one-on-one,” Kerr said. “(Butler’s) whole game is to iso, get the ball into the paint and then move it to generate shots. They just made the decision not to leave our perimeter guys, even our non-shooters on the perimeter. … They made things difficult on Jimmy.”
Now, it’s back to the drawing board for Kerr and the Warriors. Curry, Butler and Green are all under contract through 2027. Although Curry will turn 38 and Butler and Green will turn 36, they believe they can still add another championship to the Warriors’ dynasty.
They went 23-7 together down the stretch and took down the conference’s No. 2 seed before health caught up to them.
“I think we’ll be right back at it. It sucks to end this way, but we think we’ve got the pieces to make another run at it and do it again,” Green said. “That’s gonna be our mindset going into this summer.”
Butler was asked when the planning begins.
“That’s a good question,” he said. “Maybe on the plane (home), I don’t know. For sure sometime this summer.”