Editor’s note: A team source has confirmed Jimmy Butler tore his ACL and is expected to miss the rest of the season. Read the latest here.
SAN FRANCISCO — Golden State Warriors swingman Jimmy Butler injured his right knee and exited in the third quarter of Monday’s 135-112 win over the Miami Heat. He underwent an MRI on his knee after the game and the Warriors are awaiting the results.
The sequence occurred with 7:41 left in the third quarter, when Butler jumped to catch a pass from Brandin Podziemski while Heat guard Davion Mitchell was guarding him. Butler landed awkwardly on his knee and fell to the floor, staying on the ground for a couple of minutes while Warriors staff members checked on him and the Chase Center crowd fell silent. Butler eventually got up and was helped back to the locker room with teammates on each side of him. He put no weight on the knee as the crowd gave him an ovation.
“We’re all really concerned,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after the game. “But we’ll know more after the MRI obviously. We don’t know anything at this point.”
The 36-year-old Butler had been playing his best basketball of the season over the last month. Before going down Monday, he had 17 points, four assists and three rebounds in 21 minutes. Kerr acknowledged that the locker room was “subdued” after the game as the Warriors waited to hear the results of the imaging.
“I haven’t talked to him since the game,” Warriors star guard Stephen Curry said. “But you never like to see a situation like that, especially somebody as tough as he is. Praying for the best obviously with scans and all that, but we’ll figure it out. Hopefully, he’s all right.”
Butler’s teammate and friend Buddy Hield, helped him back to the locker room. Hield was trying to keep Butler’s spirits up as he relayed what it was like to be next to Butler right after he first got injured.
“His spirit leaving the court was great,” Hield said. “So we know that whatever’s to come he’s going to attack it and he’s gonna get back out there quickly.”
Curry also described Butler as trying to keep his sense of humor right after the awkward landing on his knee.
“It was kind of funny,” Curry said. “He was still cracking jokes over there while he was on the ground in true Jimmy fashion. Always going to have a good time no matter what the situation is. I do love that perspective and that part of his personality. Even in the worst of a moment, he was still having a good time. He was trying to get to the free throw line. He said it was two shots.”
While Curry didn’t want to discuss the potential ramifications of Butler missing an extended amount of time, he did say the Warriors would have to “do it by committee,” in order to pick up the slack. To that point, Kerr was asked after the game whether or not he would be willing to go back to 23-year-old forward Jonathan Kuminga now that Butler is injured.
“Sure,” Kerr said. “Absolutely.”
Kuminga hasn’t played since getting 10 minutes in a Dec. 18 loss to the Phoenix Suns and would likely be in line to get back into the rotation as trade speculation continues to hover over his future with the Warriors. Kuminga respectfully declined to comment to The Athletic before Monday’s game when asked if he had anything to say about his current situation with the organization.
Butler underwent surgery to repair a meniscus injury in his right knee in February 2018. He suffered a sprained MCL in the same knee in April 2024.