Jalen Green stepped up — eight 3-pointers on his way to 38 points. He was not alone, Houston’s Alperen Sengun had 17 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists. Dillon Brooks and Tari Eason made plays. Houston can rightfully say this was a team win.
However, Game 2 between the Warriors and Rockets turned in the first quarter when Amen Thompson took out the legs of an airborne Jimmy Butler and sent him to the ground with a nasty fall.
Butler left after taking his free throws but did not return due to a pelvic contusion. He will have an MRI on Thursday and his status for Game 3 is unknown, Golden State coach Steve Kerr said.
“Hopefully Jimmy will be able to play, but if not we have to go through our options and put together a plan,” Kerr said.
Houston came out with the desperation of a team that had lost at home. Without Butler much of the night, Stephen Curry faced the full force of a physical, aggressive Rockets defense and could not recreate the magic of Game 1. Curry scored 20 points on 6-of-15 shooting (4-of-9) from 3. He also didn’t get enough help, with starters Draymond Green, Brandin Podziemski and Moses Moody together just equaling Curry’s 20 points.
The result was a 109-94 Houston win that evened the series 1-1.
Houston might well have won the game even if Butler had not been injured, considering how well Jalen Green played — he was the best player on the floor.
” From the beginning, my whole mindset from today was to go in and be aggressive and get back to being myself,” Green said, via the Associated Press.
There are questions about strategy for the rest of this series, as well as questions about the Warriors’ depth and the Rockets’ youth.
But all of that pales in comparison to the question about Jimmy Butler’s status going forward. The Warriors are not the same without him.
