The Warriors beat the Rockets without Jimmy Butler on Saturday evening and they may have to start again on Monday.
Golden State coach Steve Kerr said on Sunday afternoon that Butler’s status for match 4 was in the air.
“I have not seen him today but he was with (head coach Rick Celebrini) and training staff,” Kerr said at a conference call with journalists. “I would just say he is always questionable.”
The Warriors won match 3 at the Chase Center on Saturday evening, 104-93, while Butler was looking at the bench in street clothes with a pelvic injury and a gluteal contusion.
Butler was injured in the first quarter of the match 2 when he landed hard on his back after jumping for a rebound and being undervalued by Amen Thompson from Houston. He left the match shortly after and was questionable for match 3 before finally sitting.
The Warriors season turned to the arrival of Butler when they went 23-8 the rest of the regular season after playing his first match for them on February 8 in Chicago. After Saturday’s match, they are now 1-1 without him. Brandin Podziemski said the victory is strengthening the conviction of the Warriors that they can win matches even without stars, as they did without Stephen Curry and Draymond Green earlier in the season.
“I think that last night helps, given the situation, the magnitude of the game,” said Podziemski about the confidence of the team without Butler. “But we have won against the Rockets twice without Steph this year. We won once without him and Draymond, so we are confident with any type of group that we have there. Obviously, it is the playoffs, so it’s different but whoever takes place there, the five that exist or anyone playing, we can win.”
Kerr inserted Jonathan Kuminga into the place of Butler in the starting formation, but he did not play the fourth quarter. Instead, Gary Payton II played a central role in the section, including a 9-2 race alone that gave the Warriors a six-point lead.
With 101 victories in the playoff series at his coach curriculum vitae, exceeding Larry Brown on Saturday evening, Kerr knows well not to count the solution of a match too effective in the next match.
“I think we have found some things in the fourth quarter, but that does not mean that they will translate by tomorrow,” said Kerr about his range combinations. “But as you go to this series, during any series, it is easier for your players to take trends and execute the things you try to perform more deeply in the series you are going.”
Such an adjustment for Houston is to use the goalkeeper Fred Vanvleet on the defensively green, abandoning the size of the speed. Green did not score more than eight points in none of the three games in the series, and made five reversals with four assists in match 3.
“They do a good job to try to get him out of the places where he can usually have an impact on the game on the offensive side,” said Kerr. “So the big challenge for Dray is to kiss this, accept the fact that we will generate an offense elsewhere and that it can always control the game on the defensive.”
Despite its lack of offensive impact, the Warriors won the Green minutes of 12 points in match 3.
Kerr said the Warriors did not train on Sunday to keep their veterans like green and fresh curry. After having two days off between each of the first three games in the series, the 4-7 games will all be played with a day separating each match from the next.
“This does not change much strategically,” said Kerr about the change of calendar. “We have to do what we have to do to win the match of tomorrow night and you go to the next one.”
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