{"id":153,"date":"2025-04-26T00:19:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T00:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/153\/"},"modified":"2025-04-26T00:19:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T00:19:09","slug":"warriors-relatively-optimistic-jimmy-butler-will-play-in-game-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/153\/","title":{"rendered":"Warriors ‘relatively optimistic’ Jimmy Butler will play in Game 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 The Warriors <\/a>believe there is a good chance that they will have\u00a0Jimmy Butler in the rotation<\/a> for Game 3 of their first-round series against the Houston Rockets on Saturday at Chase Center.<\/p>\n

Butler was knocked out early in Wednesday\u2019s Game 2 with what the team called a \u201cdeep\u201d pelvic contusion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The series is tied at 1-1.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m relatively optimistic,\u201d Warriors coach Steve Kerr said on Friday. \u201cI mean, it\u2019s Jimmy, and we know he\u2019s willing to play through anything. So we\u2019ll see. This is a day-to-day thing for sure, and we\u2019ll see how he feels tomorrow. But I think there\u2019s a chance he plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

An MRI on Thursday showed neither a fracture nor structural damage.<\/p>\n

Steph Curry also suffered a pelvic contusion during the regular season. The point guard missed two games in March, and has worn protective equipment since returning.<\/p>\n

Butler was injured on a hard fall in the first quarter of Game 2, landing on his back after being undercut by Amen Thompson while grabbing a rebound.<\/p>\n

Kerr<\/a> said he and the Warriors\u2019 coaching staff didn\u2019t think it was a malicious play by Thompson, who squeezed between Draymond Green and Houston\u2019s Steven Adams, stumbling into the legs of an airborne Butler.<\/p>\n

With Butler out, Kerr turned to Jonathan Kuminga<\/a>, who had not played in the Warriors\u2019 three most important games of the season over the last week and a half. Kuminga scored 11 points in 26 up-and-down minutes.<\/p>\n

Regardless of whether Butler plays, and if Kuminga or any other player receives more minutes, Kerr said the game plan will not change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not two game plans, but two rotations for,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cThe game plan doesn\u2019t change.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JimmyJimmy Butler III #10 of the Golden State Warriors exits the court against the Houston Rockets during the first quarter in Game Two of the Western Conference First Round NBA Playoffs at Toyota Center on April 23, 2025 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Kenneth Richmond\/Getty Images)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Originally Published: April 25, 2025 at 1:22 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 The Warriors believe there is a good chance that they will have\u00a0Jimmy Butler in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,159,160,154,164,155,156,165,6,11,161,157,162,163,66,158],"class_list":{"0":"post-153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bay-area","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-editors-picks","12":"tag-golden-state-warriors","13":"tag-inside-sports","14":"tag-keywee","15":"tag-latest-headlines","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-nba-playoffs","18":"tag-peninsula","19":"tag-pm-report","20":"tag-san-francisco","21":"tag-san-francisco-county","22":"tag-sports","23":"tag-warriors-hq"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}