{"id":176423,"date":"2025-07-17T07:50:23","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T07:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/176423\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T07:50:23","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T07:50:23","slug":"jimmy-butler-questionable-for-game-3-of-warriors-first-round-series-against-rockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/176423\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Butler questionable for Game 3 of Warriors’ first-round series against Rockets"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) \u2014 Warriors forward Jimmy Butler was listed as questionable for Game 3 of Golden State\u2019s first-round playoff series against the Houston Rockets after he sustained a pelvic contusion in a frightening fall during Game 2.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m relatively optimistic, I mean Jimmy\u2019s Jimmy. We know he\u2019s willing to play through anything, so we\u2019ll see,\u201d coach Steve Kerr said Friday. \u201cThis 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

Butler flew home from Houston and underwent an MRI exam Thursday in the Bay Area that revealed he injured his pelvis and has a deep gluteal muscle contusion. The team announced the update Friday, with the best-of-seven series tied at one game apiece as it shifts to Chase Center in San Francisco for Game 3 on Saturday night. Game 4 is Monday.<\/p>\n

Butler, who has taken pressure off Stephen Curry by contributing on both ends since arriving in the Bay Area earlier this year in a trade from Miami, went down hard when fouled by Amen Thompson late in the first quarter and then missed the rest of the Warriors\u2019 109-94 Game 2 loss<\/a> on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

Butler tried to secure a rebound when Thompson undercut him<\/a> and sent the Warriors star\u2019s feet high into the air so that he came down straight onto his tailbone. Both players thudded to the floor and Butler grimaced in pain grabbing at his backside. He stayed in briefly to shoot two free throws before going to the locker room.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, he\u2019s a huge part of what they do,\u201d Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. \u201cIsolation scorer, cross matches, he likes to hunt those, so you can key in on Curry a little bit more obviously with him not on the court. And I think we did that for the most part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Houston\u2019s Dillon Brooks on Friday defended Thompson for playing fairly<\/a> and instead said, \u201cI think the dirty player is Draymond (Green).\u201d<\/p>\n

When told Friday of Brooks\u2019 comment, Kerr said: \u201cDillon said that? Interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three years ago when he was with Memphis, Brooks\u2019 flagrant-2 foul on Gary Payton II<\/a> during Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals fractured Payton\u2019s elbow. He returned for Game 2 of Golden State\u2019s six-game NBA Finals victory over Boston.<\/p>\n

The Warriors are counting on the do-everything Butler if they want to make a deep run.<\/p>\n

In the Game 1 win against the Rockets, he had 25 points on 10-for-19 shooting, seven rebounds, six assists and five steals in 42 minutes of action. The Warriors are 25-9 since Butler made his debut at Chicago on Feb. 8, including 23-8 in the regular season, a play-in tournament win over Memphis and the two games facing Houston.<\/p>\n

Now, if need be, Kerr will do his best to capitalize on the depth that has been an asset all season \u2014 \u201cnot two game plans but two rotations for sure, the game plan doesn\u2019t change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a pain tolerance thing, that\u2019s why it\u2019s day to day,\u201d Kerr said of Butler\u2019s status.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Kuminga hadn\u2019t been on the court at all the previous three games but was called into the rotation with Butler hurt, and Brandin Podziemski played through an illness with his team short-handed \u2014 even receiving intravenous fluids at halftime.<\/p>\n

He thinks he had food poisoning from seafood he ate. Now, Podziemski is ready to go and handle any load needed no matter Butler\u2019s availability and also to assist Curry.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s going to step up and play a better role when he\u2019s not out there,\u201d Podziemski said. \u201cObviously it helps that we\u2019re at home so role players, it makes it easier for them because the crowd\u2019s playing with them. I think everybody\u2019s just going to step up and play better. It\u2019s the first home playoff game for many of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kerr said Curry had suffered similar injuries to what Butler is going through.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had that happen a couple of times and you know exactly what it is. It\u2019s a matter of how bad it was and I don\u2019t know,\u201d Curry said after the game. \u201cBut it definitely changed the dynamic of our offense. Him and BP played a combined 21 minutes, so it kind of shuffled all the rotations a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Sports Writer Kristie Rieken in Houston contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO (AP) \u2014 Warriors forward Jimmy Butler was listed as questionable for Game 3 of Golden State\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[883,2889,7,860,579,1195,1347,164,292,194,4066,1272,3636,313,867,1274,6,446,211,162,66,573,863,582],"class_list":{"0":"post-176423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-amen-thompson","9":"tag-athlete-injuries","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-brandin-podziemski","12":"tag-ca-state-wire","13":"tag-dillon-brooks","14":"tag-gary-payton-ii","15":"tag-golden-state-warriors","16":"tag-houston","17":"tag-houston-rockets","18":"tag-houstonrockets","19":"tag-ime-udoka","20":"tag-injuries","21":"tag-jimmy-butler","22":"tag-jonathan-kuminga","23":"tag-medical-diagnostic-technology","24":"tag-nba","25":"tag-nba-basketball","26":"tag-rockets","27":"tag-san-francisco","28":"tag-sports","29":"tag-stephen-curry","30":"tag-steve-kerr","31":"tag-tx-state-wire"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114867485943873496","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176423","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=176423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}