{"id":125403,"date":"2025-02-24T16:30:44","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T21:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=125403"},"modified":"2025-02-24T15:07:50","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T20:07:50","slug":"are-the-warriors-proving-to-be-contenders-with-butler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/02\/24\/are-the-warriors-proving-to-be-contenders-with-butler\/","title":{"rendered":"Are The Warriors Proving To Be Contenders With Butler?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Warriors’ record with Jimmy Butler<\/a> is now 5-1. They are quickly making their way back into the heat of the Western Conference playoff race, standing at the ninth seed. The Warriors vs Mavericks game, where the Warriors won handily 126-102 on national television, was an indicator to the league that the Warriors may be contenders<\/a>. But are they true contenders? Their soft schedule has yet to give them a real opportunity to prove themselves.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Are The Warriors Proving To Be Contenders With Butler?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Warriors Vs Mavericks Revenge Win<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Warriors vs Mavericks game on Sunday was a rematch of the Warriors’ only loss during the Butler era. The Warriors came out and smacked the Mavericks in the face. They never looked back either. The win came just before the Andre Iguodala<\/a>\u00a0jersey retirement ceremony<\/a>, and the vibes in the Bay are at a high.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Over their last six games<\/span><\/a>, they are the sixth-ranked offense.\u00a0 They are also third in defensive rating and fourth in net rating. The Warriors have all the makings of an elite squad. Butler has not only opened up the offense for Stephen Curry<\/a> and the gang, but their new starting lineup is playing top-notch defense as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Warriors Record With Jimmy Butler<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The record with Butler on the floor is great, but the Warriors are still only 30-27 on the season with a long way to go. As the nine seed, they are still 1.5 games out of the sixth seed and avoiding the Play-In Tournament. The Warriors have lost twice in the Play-In, and they don\u2019t want to risk that happening again.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

They shouldn\u2019t have to either. The four teams above them in the standings are all not playing their best basketball. The Rockets are 3-7 in their last ten games, the Clippers are 5-5, Timberwolves 4-6, and the Mavericks 5-5. But even if the Warriors avoid the Play-In, the playoffs are a different beast.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Can the Warriors Make it Out of the West?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Warriors record with Jimmy Butler has some people thinking they can contend at the top of the West. Unfortunately, they haven\u2019t really been tested yet. Of their five wins, only one was against a top-six seed, and they were missing their best player. They have yet to beat a great team in their full form and until they do, it is hard to know exactly what their ceiling is.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Warriors will likely have to go through some stiff competition to get a shot at another NBA Finals. Butler gives them an edge<\/a> they didn\u2019t have before, but beating teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets is going to be a tall task.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A lot of the Warriors’ chances of contending in the West lay beyond their Butler addition. Are they big enough to handle guys like Nikola Jokic<\/a>? Does Curry still have enough left in the tank to lead another deep playoff run? We will know a lot more over the next few games. The Warriors’ hot streak is certainly worth keeping an eye on, but until they start beating other contenders, they haven\u2019t proved much yet.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 John Hefti-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Warriors’ record with Jimmy Butler is now 5-1. They are quickly making their way back into the heat of the Western Conference playoff race, standing at the ninth seed. The Warriors vs Mavericks game, where the Warriors won handily 126-102 on national television, was an indicator to the league that the Warriors may be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5284,"featured_media":125477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,25,62],"tags":[629,142,72,48],"class_list":["post-125403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-warriors","category-nba","tag-andre-iguodala","tag-jimmy-butler","tag-nikola-jokic","tag-stephen-curry"],"modified_by":"Jordan Pagkalinawan","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125403"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125478,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125403\/revisions\/125478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}