Jimmy Butler’s aggression on offense had been on an uptick as of late. But this night against his former team felt entirely personal.
With just under eight minutes and thirty seconds left in the first quarter of the Golden State Warriors’ rematch against the Miami Heat (Butler, Steph Curry, and Draymond Green were unavailable for the first matchup in Miami), Quinten Post hauled in the rebound and promptly passed the ball to Curry, who brought the ball up. Scanning the floor, Curry throws a rocket to Will Richard in the corner, with Bam Adebayo sauntering back and becoming visible on the NBCS Bay Area broadcast.
At that point, Adebayo and the television audience had one thing in common: none of them saw Butler zooming toward the half-court view like a bullet shot out of a gun. With his “stampede” cut, Butler caught the pass from Richard on the run, blew past the unsuspecting Adebayo, and rocketed all the way to the rim for the easy finish:
Butler made it a point to make an example of his former teammate, going at him at every opportunity he could get. Despite good defense from Adebayo under the paint, as he is wont to do as one of the league’s preeminent defenders, Butler was able to create ample separation from Adebayo using a turnaround fadeaway jumper:
If ever there was a night for Butler to move differently — in the sense of having that extra motivation to perform better than usual — it would be against the Heat, a squad Butler led to the Finals in 2020 and 2023. Butler fell short of achieving a championship in both instances, but those runs stamped his reputation as a big-game performer and playoff riser.
A rather acrimonious exit with the organization that Butler toiled for is certainly a catalyst for showing off. The proverbial fire was lit underneath him on both ends of the floor:
Players who have something to prove often get lost in the tunnel vision accompanies wanton aggression. Butler could’ve easily fallen victim to ball-hogging ventures born out of a desire to stick it to his former employers, coaches, and teammates. But in true Butlerian fashion, he refrained from waging a one-man crusade and still sought to create good looks for his teammates.
With Moses Moody setting a “Pistol” screen for him in the possession below, Butler coaxes a switch out of the Heat on the drive. Warriors legend Andrew Wiggins drifts too far off of Moody and Butler simply finds the open Moody for a three:
Things were looking dandy for Butler and the Warriors. In his 20 minutes and 50 seconds of time on the floor, the Warriors outscored the Heat by a total of nine points, buoyed by Butler’s versatile floor game and steadiness on defense (as evidenced by the Warriors’ 94 defensive rating in such minutes). However, a story that was seemingly on its way toward a happy ending quickly turned into a nightmare scenario.
Jimmy Butler had to be helped to the locker room after appearing to injury his knee pic.twitter.com/sOSpAxbbAP
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) January 20, 2026
Unable to put much weight on his injured right knee, Butler was taken to the locker room and was promptly ruled out for the rest of the game. As of this writing, he is currently having an MRI to determine the nature and severity of the injury.
Words cannot describe how consequential a potential extended Butler absence would be for the Warriors. Butler has played at a top 15-20 level this season, ranking highly in several advanced metrics such as Estimated Plus-Minus (plus-4.2, 14th), Box Plus-Minus (plus-5.5, 12th), and DARKO Plus-Minus (plus-2.8, 19th). He leads the team in total plus-minus (plus-176) and the Warriors have been 10.9 points per 100 possessions better with Butler on the floor.
Most notably, non-Curry minutes spearheaded by Butler have outscored opponents by 8.9 points per 100 possessions in 561 low-leverage minutes. To not only be a positive during Curry’s bench minutes but be a significant positive is unheard of. With Butler potentially missing time, the fear is that the previous status quo — that of non-Curry lineups having trouble creating any sort of positive impact — will return.
At 36 years old, Butler’s prime years are past him; to be playing at this level, with impact that contributes to winning basketball, is quite an amazing feat. But should Butler miss a year or more, he will be 37 years old. For injuries such as this, the extensive rehabilitation and re-acclimatization process isn’t as kind to older players as it has become to younger ones.
Butler still very much wants to contribute to winning, desiring that championship that has eluded him twice. That window was already somewhat narrow before this injury; it has become much closer to being shut with the untimely and unfortunate inward buckle of his knee.
In the grand scheme of things, if the diagnosis turns out to be what everyone isn’t hoping for it to be, the Warriors’ window for contention will be equally close to being shut. The Warriors will have little incentive to move off of their tradeable assets in Jonathan Kuminga (besides the fact that this relationship has run its course) and their treasure trove of picks. Without a keystone for championship contention, what leverage the Warriors had in trade talks would be eliminated, as well as reasons for front office and ownership to go all in on the remaining years of the Curry era.
Most important of all, let us not forget the human element — and hope that Butler will recover expeditiously and in a manner that will allow him to return to play, without any hindrance and setbacks.
