{"id":130872,"date":"2025-03-26T08:45:27","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T12:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=130872"},"modified":"2025-03-26T08:45:27","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T12:45:27","slug":"jimmy-butler-miami-heat-return-warriors-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/26\/jimmy-butler-miami-heat-return-warriors-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"Butler\u2019s No-Show In Miami Indicative Of Bigger Warriors Problems"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Miami Heat walloped the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night. The game was an opportunity for the Warriors to gain a stronger footing in the tight Western Conference playoff race<\/a> and for Jimmy Butler<\/a> to get a little revenge on his old squad. Instead, the Heat dominated them, looking utterly rudderless without Stephen Curry<\/a> in the lineup. They\u2019ve lost their last two games without him, and Butler\u2019s return to Miami may indicate that the Warriors could face more problems down the road.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Butler\u2019s No-Show In Miami Indicative Of Bigger Warriors Problems<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Warriors vs Heat Game\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Butler\u2019s Heat return was a disappointment for everyone but Miami fans. The star downplayed the importance<\/a> of the game in the media all week and then failed to play with much intensity or urgency while his team was blown out. Butler had only two points in the first half and ended the game with a measly 11 points, six rebounds, and two assists on 5-of-12 shooting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Warriors were missing Curry, who is still recovering from a pelvic contusion<\/a>. Without him, the team couldn\u2019t get any offensive flow going and was held to 86 points on 39.8% shooting. This leaves the Warriors tied in the loss column with the Los Angeles Clippers and barely holding their spot outside the Play-In Tournament.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jimmy Butler\u2019s Miami Heat Return Disappoints<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Not only was this a huge loss for the Warriors, but Butler\u2019s weak performance was the worst of all. Just imagine if Butler had come in and put up a classic \u201cPlayoff Jimmy\u201d level performance against his old team. The drama would have been a treat for all NBA fans.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, Butler looked uninspired and somewhat uninterested despite his team desperately needing the win. The forward has often been \u201ctoo cool for school,\u201d but many Warriors fans expected he would step up when the team needed offense without Curry.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Just weeks ago,<\/span> Butler said<\/span><\/a> about his lack of offensive aggressiveness, “When it’s my time, you’ll know it’s my time. Until then, I’m going to pass the ball to the open man, get my guys some jumpers, get them out in transition, and we’re gonna keep winning.” Well, Tuesday night was a great opportunity for it to be Butler\u2019s \u201ctime,\u201d and he was nowhere to be found.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Warriors Need More From Butler<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Golden State will be in trouble if Butler can\u2019t lead them when Curry misses games. The Warriors looked lost on offense in the Heat and the Hawks games without Curry. They needed Butler to step up and he couldn\u2019t.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The worry for Warriors fans is that if Curry misses more games before the playoffs start. Will they fall down the standings and risk entering the Play-In Tournament? Or what if Curry misses a playoff game or two with a minor injury? Can Butler step up and lead the team offensively? Warriors fans are hoping that they won\u2019t need to find out. Curry is expected to return soon, and the team should get back on track. Still, Butler\u2019s dud in his Heat return game should raise some concerns for the Warriors.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

The Miami Heat walloped the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night. The game was an opportunity for the Warriors to gain a stronger footing in the tight Western Conference playoff race and for Jimmy Butler to get a little revenge on his old squad. Instead, the Heat dominated them, looking utterly rudderless without Stephen Curry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5284,"featured_media":130897,"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":[62,25,16],"tags":[142,48],"class_list":["post-130872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-warriors","category-heat","tag-jimmy-butler","tag-stephen-curry"],"modified_by":"Kayla Fonte","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130872","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=130872"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130899,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130872\/revisions\/130899"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}