English
Spanish
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Russian
Chinese (Simplified)
Hindi
Japanese
Jimmy Butler made an early exit in Game 2 against the Rockets on Wednesday night.
The Warriors star took a hard fall late in the first quarter of Golden State’s 109-94 loss while going up for a rebound that led to a violent fall onto the court, with Butler in visible pain.
Golden State announced shortly after that Butler was done for the night because of a pelvis contusion, though its unclear how serious the injury is.
The injury occurred with 2:28 left in the first quarter when Butler got undercut by Houston’s Amen Thompson under the basket.
Thompson was trying to get by another Warriors player and fell forward, taking out Butler’s legs in the process and sending him flailing to the ground and landing hard on his rear end.
The fall was so hard that a loud thud could be heard when Butler hit the floor.
He immediately rolled over, grabbing his rear end before lying on the ground in clear pain.
Butler attempted to remain in the game, but when it became clear he couldn’t move the way he wanted to, he came out and went to the team’s locker room.
The Athletic reported that Butler walked gingerly from the X-ray room back to the Golden State locker room, followed by his agent, Bernie Lee, and his trainer, Armando Rivas.
General manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. was also spotted checking on Butler.
The loss of Butler, acquired from Miami in a February trade, was a huge blow to the Warriors after he had 25 points, seven rebounds and six assists in the series opener.
After the game, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said it’s too soon to speculate about the availability of Butler for Game 3.
He will have an MRI exam on Thursday.
“Hopefully Jimmy will be able to play,” he said. “But if not we have to go through our options and put together a plan.”
Butler played just eight minutes before the injury and had three points on 1-of-2 shooting from the floor.
The Rockets were leading the Warriors 22-15 at the time of the injury.
On top of Butler’s injury, the Warriors were also hampered by Brandin Podziemski’s stomach ailment.
He missed most of the first half dealing with the problem and was scoreless in 14 minutes after scoring 14 points in Game 1.
— with AP
