HOUSTON, TEXAS – APRIL 23: Jimmy Butler III #10 of the Golden State Warriors goes to the floor after … More being fouled by Amen Thompson #1 of the Houston Rockets in the first half in Game Two of the Western Conference First Round NBA Playoffs at Toyota Center on April 23, 2025 in Houston, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)

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The Golden State Warriors stole home-court advantage from the Houston Rockets with their 95-85 win in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series on Sunday. However, the Rockets wrested momentum right back from the Warriors with their 109-94 win on Wednesday.

Jimmy Butler, who finished with 25 points on 10-of-19 shooting, seven rebounds, six assists and five steals in the Warriors’ Game 1 win, played only eight minutes in Game 2 before suffering a pelvic contusion on a hard fall after a rebound.

Butler is expected to undergo an MRI on Thursday, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic, who noted that the Warriors “have dealt with a couple of these pelvic contusions recently after similar falls from Steph Curry and Jonathan Kuminga.” Curry wound up missing two games while Kuminga missed one, and “then it became a pain management issue,” Slater added.

Game 3 isn’t until Saturday, but there’s only a one-day break between every game from that point forward. Butler doesn’t have much time to recover before the Warriors’ season could be on the line.

Warriors Throw The Kitchen Sink

With Butler sidelined and starting guard Brandin Podziemski limited by an illness, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr had to dig deep into his bag of tricks Wednesday night. He went 12 deep into his bench, dusting off both Jonathan Kuminga and Pat Spencer for the first time since the regular season ended.

Kuminga played 26 minutes—his most since a mid-March loss to the Denver Nuggets—and finished with 11 points on 4-of-12 shooting (including 2-of-5 from deep), three rebounds, two assists and one block. Spencer racked up 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting—the third-highest total of his young NBA career—along with one rebound and one assist in 12 minutes.

Kerr also tried intentionally fouling Rockets center Steven Adams late in the first half since he’s a career 53.3% shooter from the free-throw line. However, Rockets head coach Ime Udoka immediately pulled Adams to ensure the Warriors couldn’t use the Hack-an-Adams strategy to get back into the game.

With Podziemski sidelined to begin the second half, Kerr moved Gary Payton II and Quentin Post into the Warriors’ starting lineup alongside Steph Curry, Moses Moody and Draymond Green. Post knocked down four three-pointers in his 25 minutes, but Payton finished with zero points on 0-of-3 shooting along with one rebound, one assist and one steal in 12 minutes.

Stephen Curry had a team-high 20 points and nine assists, but he didn’t get nearly enough offensive help from the Warriors’ supporting cast. Curry, Butler and Podziemski combined for 70 of Golden State’s 95 points in Game 1, while no one else had more than seven. Post and Moses Moody had 12 points apiece in Game 2, but no one aside from Curry topped that.

That’s where the Warriors missed Butler’s impact the most. After Game 1, Warriors forward Draymond Green praised him for helping settle the offense down whenever the Rockets cut their lead.

“Overall, he’s such a huge calm force for us,” Green told reporters. “Just calms everything down, get us to our spots and get us a good look.”

Curry praised Butler’s poise and composure as well, noting he “can create a lot of looks” when opponents devote extra defensive help to keeping the ball out of Curry’s hands.

The Warriors badly missed that stabilizing presence in Game 2, and no one else on the roster can replace everything Butler brings to the table if he’s forced to miss Game 3.

The Rockets’ Revival

Butler doesn’t only make an impact on offense, though. He’s versatile enough on the other end of the floor to defend anyone from point guard Fred VanVleet to center Alperen Şengün.

In Game 1, the Rockets’ offense was stuck in mud. VanVleet and shooting guard Jalen Green combined for only 17 points on a horrific 7-of-34 shooting. But with Butler and Podziemski largely sidelined in Game 2, Green went off for 38 points—his third-highest scoring total of the season—on 13-of-25 shooting (including 8-of-18 from deep). Meanwhile, Şengün hauled in 16 rebounds, including six on the offensive glass, after finishing with only nine in Game 1.

Even prior to Butler’s arrival in Golden State, games between the Warriors and Rockets have been rock fights all season. Aside from their first meeting—a 127-121 overtime victory by the Warriors—at least one of the two teams has failed to crack 100 points in the other five games this year. With or without Butler, that figures to continue.

Green is a notoriously streaky scorer. In the past month alone, he’s gone off for 30 points one game and had fewer than 10 in either the game immediately before or after that. There’s no guarantee that his eruption Wednesday night will carry over into Game 3 on Saturday.

The Rockets do have a clear size advantage against the Warriors between Şengün, Tari Eason, Steven Adams and Jabari Smith Jr. After outrebounding the Warriors 52 to 36 in Game 1—including a 22-to-6 advantage on the offensive glass—they again won the battle of the boards in Game 2 (47 to 33 overall). That’s an area where they figure to maintain an advantage all series, which can help counteract their lack of half-court scoring efficiency.

The Rockets were 22nd in half-court points per possession during the regular season, although the Warriors weren’t much better at 20th. Granted, the Warriors went from averaging 95.5 points per 100 half-court possessions prior to Butler’s arrival to 100.3 points per 100 half-court possessions with Butler in the fold. Meanwhile, Houston was lethal off takeaways with the eighth-most points added via transition leaguewide.

To win this series, the Warriors need to keep Green in check and limit their turnovers to keep the Rockets primarily in half-court settings. Butler helps in both areas, which makes his potential absence all the more daunting as the series heads back to the Bay Area for Game 3.

Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.

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