How twolves closed “ playoff jimmy ‘in the semi-finals

Jimmy Butler III let out a single sniff while he was sitting on the podium after the defeat of match 5 which ended the Warriors season.

“We are not going to use Nothing An excuse, ”said Butler.

The morve in its nostrils, however, only served as an additional evidence for a case that had been built by its play in the court for a large part of this series of semi-final of the Western conference against the Minnesota Timberwolves. There was something that was wrong with “Playoff Jimmy”.

Always hampered by the hard fall he took in turn 1, fighting an illness that arose before match 4, the 35 -year -old butler could not transport the Warriors when they most needed him. With Steph Curry, looking from the key, the Minnesota contained it at 17 points on 4 shots out of 11 from the field and 9 out of 11 of the fault line during the Warriors 121-110 defeat on Wednesday evening.

During his first playoff series with Golden State, Butler collected an average of 19.2 points, 6.6 rebounds and 5.2 assists in 36 minutes in 11 games, but was forced to miss a match in their first round series against Houston after having undergone a muscular contusion, pelvic and deep in the match 2.

While Butler minimized the impact of the injury, the Warriors coach Steve Kerr said: “He was definitely compromised by all the series. I think that the injury to Houston has definitely touched it. He played by pain.”

In four games since Curry set out his left hamstrings, Butler scored more than 20 points only once – when he dropped 33 in match 3, which was also the closest that the Warriors won a victory unless you force. Butler attempted 26 shots in this match – more nine others from the free throw line – but have failed to withdraw as many tests between matches 4 and 5, making a 9 -point points for 34 points to go with his effort of 6 out of 13 for 17 curry in their 2 defeat.

“Once Steph has come out, it has changed everything for our whole team,” said Kerr. “But especially for Jimmy.”

“Their defense has just started to charge,” said Draymond Green, who finished 4 out of 11 for 10 points – one of the three warriors to try as much shots as Butler, with Brandin Podziemski (11 out of 19) and Jonathan Kuminga (11-23).

After finishing a first match of less than 30 in match 4, Butler was a worst minus-17 team in 42 minutes on Wednesday.

“Obviously, this is very different every time you don’t have Steph on the ground,” said Butler. “I have the impression that everyone must take more and everyone must play a little different role, but it’s just the game. Wounds occur. But it’s very different with Steph no there.”

Blitzing Butler looks different from what happens to curry. He likes to drive and decide from there to take him to the rim himself or find the open on the perimeter. The Timberwolves had so much size and athletics that they were able to associate with Butler on the head and remove his potential outlets.

“Most of the time, we tried to withdraw his game creation,” said Timberwolves coach Chris Finch. “Fortunately, we have a number of guys who have been able to the body. Jaden (McDaniels) has a length. Julius (Randle) has physicality. Ant (Hons Edwards) has physicality. Even Rudy did a very good job when he changed.

This did not help that, without curry, the warriors did not have many shooters to find. They finished 11 out of 39 (28.2%) from 3 in match 5 and drew 34% of the distance during the series while ranging from long sections without a single bucket in the city center.

“I think that the most important thing in this series was without the spacing that Steph gives us, the Minnesota did an excellent job by playing simply in head,” said Kerr. “Butler’s entire game) is in ISO, puts the ball in the painting and then moves it to generate gunshots. They just made the decision not to leave our perimeter guys, even our non-pursors on the perimeter. … They made things difficult on Jimmy.”