Jimmy Butler played through pain and delivered a playoff performance for the ages to lift the Golden State Warriors past the feisty Houston Rockets 109-106 in Game 4 on Monday.
Butler scored 14 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter as the Warriors moved within a win away from advancing to the Western Conference semis.
Golden State coach Steve Kerr was in awe of Butler, who returned after missing Game 3 with a deep glute muscle contusion.
If this were the regular season, Kerr said Butler would have “missed a week or two.”
“But it’s the playoffs,” Kerr told reporters after their thrilling Game 4 win. “He’s Jimmy Butler, so this is what he does. The rebound at the end was just incredible, the elevation, the force. Then, of course, knocking down the free throws to clinch it. Jimmy was just amazing.”
Jimmy Butler’s Game-Winning Rebound
Butler grabbed the game-sealing rebound against three Rockets players with four seconds left.
“I saw that I wasn’t battling with Steven Adams in the last play, so I was able to go up there and be a semi-athlete, but I wanted that rebound,” Butler said of the play. “I told Dray (Green), if you get a stop, I will get the rebound. He got the stop and I got the rebound.”
Draymond Green forced the steaming hot Alperen Sengun, who led the Rockets with 31 points, to miss his short stab at the basket. Butler got loose from Rockets forward Dillon Brooks and collared the rebound that had Kerr all pumped up.
On the offensive end, Butler came through in the clutch, scoring 11 of the Warriors’ last 14 points to overcome the gritty Rockets, who took a 101-97 lead with 4:20 left.
“He played through the injury,” Green said of Butler. “It was beautiful. But what his presence does for this team is humongous. In the first three quarters, he couldn’t move. Not sure how he started moving in the fourth quarter, but he never complained. He stuck with it.
“I think what was most important, when the time was right, everybody on our side looked to get him the ball. When you get him the ball, he makes great things happen for himself or for others. It was huge. I think my favorite play was the last rebound. I looked up, I thought it was [Jonathan] Kuminga out there flying. It was Jimmy.”
Winning Time Knows No Pain
Butler is 13 years senior to Kuminga yet he played like he was 22 again — young and athletic — in the riveting fourth quarter.
“I thought it was winning time,” Butler said about his fourth quarter performance. “It’s just part of the game your body starts to warm up, you start to match a little bit better, you gain confidence. People start talking to you. Then good things happen.”
Butler’s competitive drive kicked in after his back-and-forth with Brooks.
“I like it,” Butler said of his heated exchange with Brooks. “I think we all like it when people start chirping. It’s been this way this entire series. I don’t think it’s going to change and we’re going to go out there, we’re going to compete and we’re going to go do what we’re supposed to do in Houston.”
Win Game 5 and get more rest to prepare for the conference semifinals.
