The Warriors beat the Rockets without Jimmy Butler on Saturday night and they may have to do it again Monday.
Golden State coach Steve Kerr said Sunday afternoon that Butler’s status for Game 4 is up in the air.
“I haven’t seen him today but he’s been with (head trainer Rick Celebrini) and the training staff,” Kerr said on a conference call with reporters. “I would just say he’s still questionable.”
The Warriors won Game 3 at Chase Center on Saturday night, 104-93, as Butler looked on from the bench in street clothes with a pelvic injury and glute contusion.
Butler was injured in the first quarter of Game 2 when he landed hard on his backside after leaping for a rebound and being undercut by Houston’s Amen Thompson. He left the game shortly thereafter and was questionable for Game 3 before ultimately sitting out.
The Warriors’ season turned around upon Butler’s arrival as they went 23-8 the rest of the regular season after he played his first game for them Feb. 8 in Chicago. After Saturday’s game, they’re now 1-1 without him. Brandin Podziemski said the win reinforces the Warriors’ belief that they can win games even without stars, as they did without Stephen Curry and Draymond Green earlier in the season.
“I think last night helps, given the situation, the magnitude of the game,” Podziemski said about the team’s confidence without Butler. “But we won against the Rockets two times without Steph this year. We won once without him and Draymond, so we’re confident with any kind of group we have out there. Obviously it’s the playoffs, so it’s different but anybody that rolls out there, the five that’s out there or whoever plays, we got confidence that we can win.”
Kerr inserted Jonathan Kuminga into Butler’s spot in the starting lineup, but he did not play in the fourth quarter. Instead, Gary Payton II played a pivotal role down the stretch, including a 9-2 run all by himself that gave the Warriors a six-point lead.
With 101 postseason wins to his coaching resume, passing Larry Brown on Saturday night, Kerr knows well not to count too much one game’s solution to be as effective in the next game.
“I think we found some things in the fourth quarter but that doesn’t mean they will translate to tomorrow,” Kerr said of his lineup combinations. “But as you go in this series, during any series, it’s easier for your players to pick up tendencies and execute the things you’re trying to execute the deeper into the series you go.”
One such adjustment for Houston is to use guard Fred VanVleet on Green defensively, giving up size for speed. Green has not scored more than eight points in any of the three games in the series, and had five turnovers to four assists in Game 3.
“They’re doing a good job of trying to get him out of places where he can usually impact the game on the offensive end,” Kerr said. “So the big challenge for Dray is to embrace that, accept the fact that we’re going to generate offense elsewhere and he can still control the game defensively.”
Despite his lack of offensive impact, the Warriors won Green’s minutes by 12 points in Game 3.
Kerr said the Warriors didn’t practice Sunday to keep their veterans like Green and Curry fresh. After having two days off between each of the first three games of the series, Games 4-7 will all be played with one day separating each game from the next.
“It doesn’t change much strategically,” Kerr said of the schedule shift. “We have to do what we have to do to win tomorrow night’s game and you move on to the next one.”
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