This, of course, is not why the Warriors traded for Jimmy Butler.
The Dubs weren’t looking for a No. 1 option — someone to drag this team, perhaps even kicking and screaming, to wins. They didn’t need Miami Jimmy or even Chicago Jimmy.
But with Steph Curry sidelined and the Warriors and Timberwolves tied at 1-1 in their Western Conference Semifinals series, which heads back to San Francisco for Games 3 and 4 Saturday and Monday, the Warriors need Butler now more than ever.
For all this talk about alter-egos and superheroes this postseason — Batman, Robin, Alfred the Butler (?) — it’s time for a real superhero to show up:
The Warriors need Playoff Jimmy.
And I’m talking about the classic edition. The hunched-over-on-the-advertising-board, all-48-minutes, left-it-all-out-there, indomitable-will-to-win Butler.
Anything less spells doom for the Dubs.
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Is it a big ask? Absolutely. Butler is playing injured, this is the final eight of the NBA, and he’s playing with… Kevin Knox?
Yes, that happened Thursday, and it wasn’t a bit. Butler must have flashed back to his infamous 2018 practice in Minnesota, where he, amid a contract squabble with the team, led the third stringers to a scrimmage win over the starters.
It’s said that in that scrimmage, Butler made it a point not to score. He instead played defense like a madman and passed the ball to the future stars of Europe. They ran over the starters.
But if the Warriors want to win another game and extend this series to a Game 6 and a possible (just possible) Curry return, Butler will have to score.
They need buckets from Jimmy. (Has anyone ever played around with that phrasing?)
Butler is adamant about playing the game “the right way” these days. It’s what made his transition to Golden State so easy. He wants to get his guys going, make sure everyone touches the ball, and gets good, clean looks.
That’s all well and good when you have Curry, or you’re in a training-camp scrimmage.
But did Butler look around him on Thursday?
The cast and the stage didn’t match for the Warriors.
(Maybe this West Coast lifestyle and collaborative Kerr spirit has made him soft. Tom Thibodeau would never let this happen.)
Steph wasn’t out there in Game 2, and Warriors coach Steve Kerr was deploying a throw-stuff-against-the-wall strategy, playing 14 guys in the meaningful portion of the game.
So I can appreciate that in a game like that, where the lineups are constantly changing and the Warriors are just trying to find two- and three-man combinations that work, much less five-man units, Butler being unselfish can be a positive. He spent so much of Game 2 pointing to spots on the floor, trying to get the out-of-their-depth, end-of-the-bench Dubs into the right sets. He was orchestrating.
But the Dubs don’t need a coach on the floor anymore; they need someone to score.
Butler took only nine shots in the first three quarters on Thursday. That tactic, amongst so many other things, lost the game.
The feeling-out period is over now. The Warriors found some guys—Jonathan Kuminga and Jackson-Davis—who can theoretically help against this particular Minnesota matchup.
And from Game 3 onwards, it’s on Butler to be selfish.
I’m guessing he knows it, too.
When the Warriors went down 13-0 in the first five minutes Thursday, there was a strange inkling that, hey, they might not score in the first quarter. What did Butler do?
He took the ball into his hands and scored five quick points off a 3 and an 18-foot jumper.
When the Warriors needed to make a quick statement to start the second half, down 17, what did Butler do?
He drove right to the basket and scored. He knocked down another 3-pointer to cut the lead to 12. He followed that with an And-1 drive to the basket.
There’s no one else on the Warriors right now that you can reliably say can give the team 20.
That means Butler needs to give the Dubs something close to 40.
Does he have it in him?
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It might not be in his legs, or, more specifically — and I apologize for this — his butt, which had a deep, deep bruise after his hard fall in Game 2 in Houston, to lift his team.
Playing every other day since his return — including a Game 7 in Houston — isn’t exactly recuperation for an injury that would, under normal circumstances, have sidelined him until around now.
I know Warriors fans are seeing Butler, in earnest, for the first time these past few weeks, but this is not the Butler of years past. Long stretches of play have not been unselfish, but passive. His explosion seems to be saved for a few choice bursts a game.
Late in the fourth quarter of Game 1 against the Wolves, the game Curry had to leave in the second quarter with his hamstring injury, Butler was caught by TNT cameras telling Dubs assistant coach Chris DeMarco “I can’t hear. I’m extremely tired.”
He downplayed that exhaustion after Game 2.
“I feel pretty good – I get to rest,” Butler said. “We get to take a flight back, sleep in our own beds. Get some recovery, dominoes, coffee, kids… And get ready to compete again.”
Carrying a team is hard. Why do you think he was so happy to come to the Warriors? (Besides the money, of course.) Carrying a team without your — ahem —powerhouse (that’s for all my football scouts) is even tougher.
But Butler has a reputation for having the mentality to overcome all that.
He’s won everything imaginable save for the most important thing — a title. And if he wants a shot at one this season, he needs it to carry this team to one win in the next three games.
So, yes, the Warriors didn’t acquire Butler to be a No.1, but this is precisely why you need a No. 2 like him.