The Golden State Warriors have ruled out six-time All-Star small forward Jimmy Butler for the entire second half of the club’s ongoing clash with the Phoenix Suns.
Per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, the 6-foot-7 Marquette product is suffering from a sore lower back.
Thanks in part to Butler’s aggressive rebounding, playmaking and defense, the Warriors had looked utterly dominant in the opening half, and were leading by double digits, 68-49, at the break. Now, Phoenix is catching up, having outscored Golden State 32-23 in the third frame so far to close the gap to a far more surmountable 11 points, 92-81, with 55.5 seconds remaining in the period.
Butler finishes the game with just two points on 1-of-5 shooting from the floor, but four rebounds, two assists, and a team-best +17 plus-minus in 14:06 of action.
Golden’s State will now lean more on 11-time All-NBA superstar point guard Stephen Curry, who currently has 23 points. Only two other Warriors — starting center Quinten Post (11 points) and reserve shooting guard Moses Moody (14 points) have scored in double figures so far.
Four-time Phoenix All-Star shooting guard Devin Booker has been on a scoring clinic through most of three quarters. The 6-foot-5 Kentucky product has 32 points on 10-of-18 shooting from the field and 11-of-11 shooting from the charity stripe, while starting center Mark Williams has already notched a 10-point, 10-rebound double-double.
The Warriors had begun the season on an impressive 4-1 tear, but an insanely active schedule finally seemed to sap their aging core of future Hall of Famers (comprising 36-year-old Butler, 37-year-old Curry, and 35-year-old Draymond Green) of some energy, and Golden State has since dropped its last two games.
Provided he can stay healthy through February and the Warriors can weather this short-term schedule storm, Butler is looking like an All-Star again, even in his NBA dotage. Through his first six games, he had been averaging 21.7 points on .507/.563/.9000 shooting splits (that 56.3 percent long range rate arrived on 2.7 wide-open triple tries per, but he is not historically a great 3-point shooter), plus 5.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 1.0 steals a night.
Thanks to the growth of young pieces Jonathan Kuminga, Post, Moses Moody, Brandin Podziemski, and rookie Will Richard — plus the arrival of 3-and-D reserve center Al Horford (and the free agent return of De’Anthony Melton, although he’s still recovering from a 2024 ACL tear for now) — this is looking like the deepest Warriors team since its 2021-22 championship iteration. But age could prove to be Golden State’s biggest vulnerability, especially against younger, bigger Western Conference squads like the Oklahoma City Thunder, Denver Nuggets and Houston Rockets.
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