Playoff Jimmy Butler is 'a totally different person,' says Warriors' Draymond Green after dominant performance

The postseason has started, and Butler has 'turned it up completely on both sides of the ball,' Green said

Ahead of their first-round series against the Houston Rockets, the Golden State Warriors appear to have made an addition to their roster: Playoff Jimmy.

"He's different," Warriors forward Draymond Green said of Jimmy Butler after their 121-116 victory against the Memphis Grizzlies in Tuesday's play-in. "You can just see a whole different intensity level and focus."

With the No. 7 seed on the line, Jimmy Butler lit up the Grizzlies for 38 points -- more than he scored in any regular-season game this season -- on 12-for-20 shooting. He could have had 40-plus if he'd made a few more of his free throws. (He went 12 for 18 from the line.) This followed a 30-point performance in Golden State's 124-119 loss against the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday.

"He's just turned it up completely on both sides of the ball," Green told reporters. "I'm gonna give him some crap about missing six free throws, but he's just -- I don't know, man, I think what's great is that everyone else is adjusting to it. Because he's way more aggressive to score. He hadn't yelled at anybody since he's been here. He's, like, yelling at guys now. It's a totally different person."

With Playoff Jimmy Butler next to Stephen Curry, Warriors show exactly why they're a threat to beat anyone

Brad Botkin

In 30 regular-season games with Golden State, Butler averaged 17.9 points and 11.1 field goal attempts in 32.7 minutes for the Warriors. Based on his track record, all of these numbers will increase in the postseason. In 2023, en route to the NBA Finals, he scored 56 points in Game 4 of the Miami Heat's first-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks and 42 in the clincher two days later. In 2022, he scored 40-plus in each of Miami's three series and twice in the conference finals against the Boston Celtics. He had a pair of 40-point games in the 2020 playoffs, too -- one to open the Heat's second-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks, one in Game 3 of the Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers.

"I'm a basketball fan, so I've watched it on TV for years," Green said. "To see it up close and personal, like, it's a real thing. Sometimes you get in the NBA and these guys get these nicknames and you're like, 'Man, stop it.' There's some other nicknames out there, they're not real. That one's real, and I'm happy he's on our side."

Butler can help the Warriors without putting up tons of points, as he has shown since they acquired him at the trade deadline. In high-stakes, high-pressure situations, though, the 35-year-old forward remains among the league's best when it comes to creating something out of nothing.

"He controls games," Golden State coach Steve Kerr told reporters after Tuesday's game. "That's why he is who he is. In these big moments, these big games, he just settles you down constantly."

Knowing that Butler is reluctant to shoot pull-up 3s, Memphis elected to put 7-foot-4 center Zach Edey on Butler. This did not prove to be particularly effective.

"We talked about it at shootaround this morning, we anticipated that matchup," Kerr said. "He just told me, 'I don't care who guards me. Just give me space, give me the ball, I'll make something happen.' And that's the beauty of Jimmy. You guys can see it. We have morphed into a different team. 

"We've got the movement and the flow of Steph [Curry], but we've also become, for half the game, a great iso team. We've never been an iso team here, and there's great advantage to that, to be able to get to the line, to generate offense without having to fly around and set a million screens. So Jimmy has completely changed everything for us since he's been here, and tonight was a great example of that."

Green said he had "definitely" wanted Butler to dial up his aggressiveness, but he "wasn't worried at all" and wasn't going to push Butler to do so. Having watched Butler from afar, he figured Playoff Jimmy would show up when the Warriors needed him. 

"I think we all have our process," Green said. "I have my process. And you just learn not to mess with a guy's process. He goes about things in a certain way. I think that's the beauty of this place. Nobody's going to be like, 'Yo, you need to do more of this.' Nah, we're going to -- like, [if] that's what you do, that's what you do." 

According to Green, guard Buddy Hield is the only Warrior who dared to say something to Butler about getting more shots up. 

"Buddy said something, but that's Buddy, you know? Buddy don't know no better," Green said, laughing. "[The rest] of us were just like, 'He'll be more aggressive when it's time to be aggressive.' And I think that's two games in a row he shot 20 shots, right? It's impressive."

Curry, who scored 37 points on 9-for-22 shooting and made back-to-back 3s with less than two minutes left in the fourth quarter against Memphis, said that he "never doubted" Butler's ability to sense what the game calls for.

"We've all watched it," Curry told reporters. "He was in the Eastern Conference and we were in the West, we never got to play against Playoff Jimmy but the idea [is that] he raises his level at the right time, when it's needed the most. That's why the trade made so much sense for us, 'cause he has that experience, he has that résumé. 

"And he's proven it since he's been here, but these last two games you can see a different level of intentionality and especially just scoring the basketball. 'Cause teams are trying to take away some of our pet actions. At the end of the day, you just need somebody who can put the ball in the basket, and he knows how to do that. So we have to keep doing all of our parts, and Playoff Jimmy will hopefully be a big unlock for us."

Curry said that Butler takes pride in "playing the right way" and "understands the nerves and the adrenaline and the expectations, and none of that rattles him." He added that Golden State "definitely needed every one of [Butler's points], and you can tell he's a dog and a winner and loves these type of environments and it brings the best out of him."

In both his walkoff interview and his postgame press conference, Butler referred to Curry as the Batman to his Robin. He told reporters that he saw that the Warriors "may need me to score a little bit more right now," but stressed that this could change when they play Houston on Sunday.

"If I can get 17 assists and we win, that's great; if I can get 10 steals or two steals and we win, that's great," Butler said. "But I think me scoring a little bit more has definitely helped us a little bit."