Golden State Warriors forward Jimmy Butler III, left, celebrates with guard Stephen Curry (30) in the course of the first half of an NBA play-in tournament basketball game against the Memphis Grizzlies in San Francisco, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
SAN FRANCISCO— Two months in and Jimmy Butler has turn out to be so comfortable with the Golden State Warriors that he’s now shouting when someone takes a nasty shot, or he’s demanding the ball be in his hands if it has been a possession or two without having touched it.
READ NBA: Warriors hold off Grizzlies, nab No. 7 seed in West
Draymond Green, for one, is loving how Butler is taking charge — he’s Playoff Jimmy in spite of everything and that is his time of 12 months. He has earned it. He thrives on the NBA postseason stage.
“He’s different. You possibly can just see an entire different intensity level and focus. I’m a basketball fan and so I’ve watched it on TV for years,” Green said. “To see it up close and private, it’s an actual thing. Sometimes you get within the NBA and these guys get these nicknames and also you’re like, ‘Man, stop it.’ There’s another nicknames on the market, they’re not real. That one’s real, and I’m joyful he’s on our side.”
Golden State Warriors forward Jimmy Butler III brings the ball up the court against the Memphis Grizzlies in the course of the first half of an NBA play-in tournament basketball game in San Francisco, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Butler chuckled and smiled when asked what he has been yelling these days.
“You would like me to inform you what I said?” he said, “… Nah, they going to nice me.”
Green gladly shared the small print.
“He go a pair possessions without touching the ball, he’s going crazy immediately. Like, ‘I even have to get the ball! I even have to the touch the ball!’” Green said. “So it’s been interesting to observe the shift, as someone who has been in 1,000,000 playoff series, it’s been interesting to observe this 12 months and I’m having fun with it.”
On Tuesday night, Butler helped the Warriors finally win a play-in game after going 0-3 in appearances last 12 months and in 2021, so now he’s able to do every little thing he can to capture a championship and help Curry and Green bring home a fifth title.
With just a few days off ultimately after beating the Grizzlies 121-116, Golden State has some much-needed rest and recovery before traveling to Texas to tackle the Rockets. Game 1 in Houston is Sunday.
READ: NBA: Heat torch Warriors in Jimmy Butler’s Miami return
“I need everybody to be joyful, of course Steph, he deserves it, what he’s done for the sport of basketball not only this city and this organization,” Butler said. “He’s in it for the long haul. He desires to win. He desires to win each game, each possession.”
Curry turned 37 last month and returning to the playoffs means a lot, wrapping up his sixteenth NBA season after missing out in 2024.
“It’s easy to not take it without any consideration because we weren’t there last 12 months,” he said. “From 2013 to ‘19, we made the Finals runs but we were within the playoffs yearly and a two-year stretch where we missed it after which ’22 got here around. It’s only a reminder that it’s not guaranteed, I don’t care how talented you’re.”
Coach Steve Kerr felt the identical way. He couldn’t wait to get to work together with his staff on the sport plan for a Rockets team that won 106-96 on the Warriors’ home floor April 6.
“That is what we do. I mean, that is so fun. That is the most effective time of the 12 months. You realize, that is Yr 11,” Kerr said. “My favorite, perhaps my favorite day of the season is tomorrow (Wednesday). We are available in as a staff, we take a look at Houston tape. We begin to put together our game plan. The players are resting. We’ve got a few days before we’ll see the players again. We get to go to work and check out to beat an incredible team in a seven-game series. There’s nothing higher. So I can’t wait.”
Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry (30) celebrates a turnover by the Memphis Grizzlies within the second half of an NBA play-in tournament basketball game in San Francisco, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Butler, Curry and Green won’t be content with anything but a deep run.
Yet this hardly seemed possible mere months ago — before Butler got to town, that’s.
The Warriors had begun 12-3 despite losing Klay Thompson to Dallas but then went 13-23, leaving their record at 25-26 when general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. pulled off the blockbuster trade.
“Our goal is to get to the playoffs so we will make something special occur, it’s not only to get there and the job’s done,” Green said. “We all know what it takes to win at a high level in order that’s the main target.”
Butler had 38 points, seven rebounds and 6 assists against Memphis while Curry scored 37. They hugged afterward.
Butler can’t help but be confident with Curry on his side.
“Hell, I believe any team has a probability after I’m on the team, but I do know that each team has a probability if Steph is on the team,” he said. “So I get to play Robin. That’s my Batman, and I don’t know who else is — we got all of the villains over there, Two-Face and Joker and Riddler and everybody else within the Western Conference. But we got lots of games to win.”
Before Butler even arrived to play his first game Feb. 8 after the trade from Miami, he promised Dunleavy, Kerr, Curry and Green that he would make a difference.
He knew the Warriors would make the playoffs with him.
“Every time I refer to Steph and Dray and Steve and Mike before I even came, I used to be telling them, I may help. Now, I don’t know in what manner that I may help, but we’re going to make the playoffs,” Butler recalled. “I feel like I can provide any team, of course this one, a probability to win, and so they consider it. I consider it. And that’s all that you would be able to ask for. Now we’ve just got to go on the market, execute, play our tails off, and win some more basketball games.”
