Warriors Jimmy Butler Receives Unfortunate Injury Update

Six-time All-Star Golden State Warriors forward Jimmy Butler has received a somewhat ominous injury update prior to Game 3 of his club's ongoing best-of-seven first round playoff series against the Houston Rockets, currently knotted at 1-1.

Butler departed Wednesday's Game 2, an eventual Rockets blowout, late into the first quarter of the action, after landing hard when Houston forward Amen Thompson barrelled into him as Butler fought to secure a defensive board. Dr. David J. Chao, a longtime NFL doctor, captured the moment the injury happened during the contest's TNT broadcast.

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The 35-year-old wrapped up the bout with just eight healthy minutes, scoring just three points while shooting 1-of-2 from the field and 1-of-2 from the charity stripe and securing two rebounds.

The Warriors quickly ruled Butler out for the rest of the game, with what the team at the time was calling a pelvis contusion. The team planned to have Butler undergo imaging Thursday to determine the full extent of the injury, per The Athletic's Anthony Slater.

Bench forward Jonathan Kuminga, a restricted free agent this summer, had been unceremoniously demoted from head coach Steve Kerr's lineups during Golden State's regular season finale, an overtime loss to the L.A. Clippers that sealed the Warriors' playoff fate and locked them into this first round matchup against Houston.

With Butler out, Kuminga found himself back in the rotation suddenly. The 6-foot-8 vet had a lackluster showing in the 109-94 loss, scoring 11 points on 4-of-12 shooting from the floor and 1-of-2 shooting from the foul line.

Sources inform ESPN's Shams Charania that, after undergoing an MRI on Thursday, the 6-foot-7 Marquette product has incurred a deep glute muscle contusion.

It appears he is unlikely to suit up for Golden State's Game 3 clash against his hometown Rockets, when the series shifts to San Francisco.

Still, it's not all bad news. As Charania notes, the imaging reveals that Butler did not fracture anything or suffer a structural injury, which could have potentially even ended his playoff run after just two contests.

Butler and 11-time All-Star Warriors point guard Stephen Curry showed out in Game 1, besting the Rockets 95-85. Butler finished with 25 points on 10-of-19 shooting from the floor and 4-of-6 shooting from the foul line, seven rebounds, six assists and five steals in 42 minutes.

Had Butler been determined to have suffered structural damage and missed, say, the rest of this series at least, Golden State would likely not have had the scoring, creation, or perimeter defense necessary to pull off an upset win.

Including the 1-1 playoff series and Golden State's play-in tournament win, the Warriors have gone 25-9 since making their blockbuster, multi-team trade to swipe Butler from the Miami Heat, the team he had led to two NBA Finals appearances.

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He's a critical two-way contributor, and one of the league's most dogged competitors even in his relative dotage.

Provided Butler can return and look like his superstar self, the Warriors still very much have a chance to at least make this a long series against the Western Conference's No. 2 seed.

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