How the Minnesota Timberwolves shut down ‘Playoff Jimmy’

Jimmy Butler III let out a single sniffle as he sat down at the podium following the Tournament loss that ended the Warriors season We re not going to use anything an excuse Butler explained The snot in his nostrils however served only as further evidence to a episode that had been building by his play on the court for much of this Western Conference semifinal series against the Minnesota Timberwolves There was something wrong with Playoff Jimmy Still hampered by the hard fall he took in Round fighting off an illness that cropped up before Event the -year-old Butler wasn t able to carry the Warriors when they needed him the majority With Steph Curry watching from the sidelines Minnesota contained him to points on -of- shooting from the field and -of- from the foul line in the Warriors - defeat Wednesday night In his first postseason with Golden State Butler averaged points rebounds and assists in minutes over games but was forced to miss a battle in their first-round series against Houston after suffering a pelvic and deep gluteal muscle contusion in Tournament While Butler downplayed the impact of the injury Kerr noted He was definitely compromised all series I think the injury in Houston definitely impacted him He s been playing through pain In four games since Curry strained his left hamstring Butler scored more than points only once when he dropped in Battle which was also the closest the Warriors came to pulling out a win at less than full strength Butler attempted shots in that contest plus another nine from the free-throw line but failed to get off as several tries between Games and going a combined -of- for points to go with his -of- effort for points without Curry in their Tournament loss Once Steph went out it changed everything for our whole company Kerr reported But especially for Jimmy Their defense just started loading up on him explained Draymond Green who finished -of- for points one of three Warriors to attempt as various shots as Butler along with Brandin Podziemski -of- and Jonathan Kuminga -of- After finishing a game-worst minus- in Contest Butler was a team-worst minus- in minutes Wednesday Obviously it s very different whenever you don t have Steph on the floor Butler revealed I feel like everyone has to take on more and everybody has to play a little bit of a different role but that s just the tournament Injuries happen But it is a lot different with Steph not out there Blitzing Butler looks different than when it happens to Curry He likes to drive and decide from there to take it to the rim himself or find the open man on the perimeter The Timberwolves had so much size and athleticism that they were able to match up with Butler one-on-one and take away his expected outlets Mostly we tried to take away his playmaking Timberwolves coach Chris Finch reported Fortunately we have a number of guys who were able to body him Jaden McDaniels has length Julius Randle has physicality Ant hony Edwards has physicality Even Rudy did a really good job when he got switched on him Over time that can take its toll on somebody when you have to face that multiple defenders It didn t help that without Curry the Warriors didn t have a large number of shooters for Butler to find They finished -of- from in Encounter and shot from distance over the unit of the series while going long stretches without a single bucket from downtown I think the biggest thing in this series was without the spacing that Steph gives us Minnesota did a great job of just playing us one-on-one Kerr mentioned Butler s whole meeting is to iso get the ball into the paint and then move it to generate shots They just made the decision not to leave our perimeter guys even our non-shooters on the perimeter They made things complicated on Jimmy Related Articles Without Steph Curry Warriors season ends as Timberwolves hold off rally in Battle NBA fines Draymond Green for gambling comments after Warriors loss How to watch Warriors-Timberwolves Battle Kurtenbach The Warriors Jimmy Butler business accomplished exactly what they requested Steph Curry s hamstring will be re-evaluated Saturday before accomplishable Battle Now it s back to the drawing board for Kerr and the Warriors Curry Butler and Green are all under contract through Although Curry will turn and Butler and Green will turn they believe they can still add another championship to the Warriors dynasty They went - together down the stretch and took down the conference s No seed before fitness caught up to them I think we ll be right back at it It sucks to end this way but we think we ve got the pieces to make another run at it and do it again Green explained That s gonna be our mindset going into this summer Butler was required when the planning begins That s a good question he revealed Maybe on the plane home I don t know For sure sometime this summer