A union born out of desperation looks like a match made in heaven on their first night together.
A desperate Golden State Warriors searching for a jolt got that from a superstar who found his joy back as Jimmy Butler brought a swagger that this team was lacking, helping them to a feel-good come-from-behind 132-111 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Saturday, Feb. 8, at United Center.
Stephen Curry had a heater in the third quarter en route to a 34-point night on 8-of-16 3-point shooting next to a new co-star who can keep the defense honest. Butler filled in the gaps with 25 points on 7-of-12 shooting as the two superstars on the opposite spectrum of skillset coalesced in a win that brings a renewed hope to the Warriors’ flailing season.
“He’s like the exact opposite player of me, which is kind of funny,” Curry said of Butler after the win. “I shot 16 3s. He shot one. He got to the free-throw line a lot, dominated the paint. I’m dominating the outside, the perimeter. Guys working around us. It has the potential to be real fun.”
The Warriors were making the fewest free throws, averaging only 14.8 per game before Butler’s arrival. Butler alone hit 11 of 13 free throws on his debut.
All of Butler’s seven field goals made were from less than five feet away from the basket.
Butler is the Yin to Curry’s Yang. His swagger perfectly complements Curry’s flair.
“They say opposites attract in life,” Butler told reporters when Curry’s comment was relayed to him. “I don’t think I could be a better complement to him and vice versa. They’re not leaving him ever. Probably two people will never leave him. There’s so much space for everyone else. I get the easy job. I’m playing one-on-one or I’m playing in so much space. It’s so great playing with someone like that.”
Jimmy Butler Gives Steph Curry Much-Needed Breather
The concerns about the fit were well-chronicled before the Warriors pulled the trigger on Butler. They bubbled on the surface early in the game when Butler struggled to score six points on 2-of-6 shooting in the first half and Golden State stared at a 24-point deficit in the third quarter.
It turned out Butler and the Warriors were just feeling out each other.
“One game, a lot to build on,” Curry said. “The first half was kind of a feeling out process, and Chicago got hot. But our composure in that second half was great to see, and just the idea that we were very intentional about everything we were trying to do in the second half. And it obviously worked.”
Curry flipped on the switch as he personally wiped out the Bulls’ staggering lead with 24 points on 7-of-11 shooting, including five 3-pointers, in the third quarter. He played the entire quarter.
“I don’t love playing him 12 straight minutes,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr told reporters of Curry’s third-quarter heater. “But he was on fire. He completely flipped the game, so there was no way I was going to take him out.”
Then Butler took over at the start of the fourth quarter, giving Curry his much-needed breather.
Jimmy Butler is Exactly What the Warriors Needed
The Warriors usually lost the non-Curry minutes (-2.0 when Curry is off the floor). But not this time with Kerr having the luxury to stagger Curry and Butler.
Curry’s new co-star scored 10 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter to seal the Warriors’ dramatic win with a 45-point swing.
“It was more Steph flipping the game, and Jimmy carrying forward that momentum and taking over the game when Steph went out,” Kerr told reporters. “It was fun watching it unfold.”
Butler had fun playing off Curry’s 3-point gravity.
“It’s fun to watch whenever I was extremely exhausted, gasping for air over here on the bench but just to play with him, how smart he is, how unselfish he is and how he makes the most incredible shots and he wants his teammates to be great, there’s nothing like it,” Butler told the NBC Sports Bay Area crew about his pairing with Curry following his sensational Warriors debut.
The Warriors took a big swing and missed when Kevin Durant rejected their proposed reunion. Butler was only their second option.
It turns out, the basketball gods have a better plan — giving the Warriors what they needed instead of what they wanted.
