MINNEAPOLIS — It could’ve been a proper period of mourning, but Jimmy Butler and Buddy Hield put on their own kind of show in Game 1 on Tuesday. Then they closed things out with a blistering improv comedy act.
And their teammates savored every moment of it.
“Robin turned into Batman and — what do you all call Buddy? — and Alfred turned into Robin,” Draymond Green said admiringly.
The Warriors needed the show, the laughter, the bickering, the scoring, the defense, the personality, the dual press conference, and everything else possible after Stephen Curry went down with a hamstring strain in the first quarter. And with Curry expected to miss Thursday’s Game 2 at the very least, the Warriors will need at least a couple of encores, too.
Are Butler and Hield ready for this? On Tuesday, they combined for 44 points, 19 rebounds, 11 assists, and — maybe most amazingly, in Hield’s case — four quarters of hellacious defense to lead the Warriors to a fairly shocking 99-88 victory over the Timberwolves at Target Center.
This came just two days after finishing off a grueling seven-game victory in Houston. This came with Curry playing just 13 minutes. This came against a Minnesota team that just dismantled the Lakers in the first round and features the incomparable Anthony Edwards.
And it marked the 30th time in 31 playoff series during the Curry era that Golden State has won at least one road game.
How did the Warriors do this? Well, first, Steve Kerr started the game with Hield assigned on Edwards, who promptly missed his first 10 shots of the game. But wait, Hield actually came to the court wearing the wrong shorts — which cost the Warriors a timeout to let Hield rush back to put on the right ones. Secondly, Butler directed the offense once Curry limped to the locker room and also teamed with Draymond, Hield, and every other Warrior to just about erase the Timberwolves’ offense.
“I’m Batman!” Hield said, sitting next to Butler on the podium late in the night. “I saved the day. He’s still Robin.”
Butler’s response: “Another good game, man. Except for the stupid thing you did at the beginning of the game when you didn’t have on the right shorts.”
Back to Hield: “It’s Jimmy’s fault. Blame Jimmy.”
That was just the start of it — the remarkable performance and the repartee, too. Clearly, there’s some kind of loco energy between these two veterans and it sparked up as soon as Butler arrived in the February trade. Hield joined the Warriors last offseason and was immediately popular in the locker room, but something unique happened when these two started teasing each other. Butler became more approachable — hey, he’s letting Hield yell back at him! — and Hield became the most valuable foil in recent team history.
“He understands that I just want to win,” Butler said. “I understand that he just wants to win. That’s why we can talk to each other.”
Hield: “Perhaps.”
They banter at each other in the locker room, through media sessions, on the court, and, yes, at each other during timeouts on Tuesday. They kept it up even in Game 1 while the Warriors were taking and then holding onto the lead knowing that they desperately needed this game with Curry’s status in such question.
“I’m not going to say exactly what I say in the locker room, but when I’ve got a mismatch in the post, don’t cut!” Butler said directly to Hield. “Stay on the perimeter.”
Hield: “If he’s got a mismatch, then he can score the ball!”
Butler: “I am going to score the ball. I can’t score the ball if you cut into my space! You’re not even a cutter.”
And on and on. It was priceless. Maybe it was some laughing in the face of great worry — nobody on the Warriors wanted to write Curry off for the next few games, but that tacit understanding was there in every answer. The Warriors know they probably will have to win one more game without him, maybe more than one.
“I think we’re all prepared to compete and win without him,” Butler said of Curry. “We don’t want to. But we are prepared. We may have to.”
The Timberwolves and especially Edwards will play better than they did on Tuesday. All the Warriors role players who played so well on Tuesday — Jonathan Kuminga! Pat Spencer! — in an emergency basis might not do it again this series.
But the Warriors know what they’re going to get from Draymond, who played another scintillating defensive game and added 18 points, eight rebounds, and six assists. And they know that Butler and Hield aren’t shying away from anything — why would either do that when they don’t shy away from ripping each other constantly?
“Big brother, little brother and they’re talking it out,” Gary Payton II said of the duo. “They have a relationship where they can have that conversation at a high level, high voices, and go back and forth. But it comes from a good place.”
Butler and Hield definitely seem to feed off of the byplay. And Hield, who has always been a streaky player, suddenly has put together two of his greatest performances back-to-back. He lit up the Rockets for 33 points in Game 7, and on Tuesday he provided immense two-way value, ending up with a game-best +22 in 39 minutes.
“Two-way player’s a stretch,” Butler said, before purposely using a made-up name to bug Hield. “But Buddard’s been key.”
That’s the dynamic and probably the most important part of it for the Warriors is that it makes Butler feel comfortable. He came to the Warriors with a justified reputation as a frequent malcontent — he was under his second suspension of the season by Miami when he was traded.
But Butler has been a perfect teammate in his time with the Warriors, mostly because he literally changed the trajectory of this season. And he’s no wallflower. But that’s what you want in the playoffs — Butler has happily deferred to Curry, but now he has the whole thing in his hands, at least for a little while.
Butler shot 20 times on Tuesday, making seven shots on his way to 20 points. He said he always wants to play unselfishly and pass it to somebody who’s open. But he also acknowledged that Curry’s absence probably means that he has to be more aggressive looking to create shots for himself. In the fourth quarter, as the Timberwolves were making one last run, Butler hit a running shot in traffic that he probably wouldn’t have taken in the last few months. But that’s when he had Curry with him.
And now, the Warriors really don’t have anybody else who can threaten a defense, who can find gaps and either score or pass it to somebody who came open because the defense had to move to cover Butler.
“I guess it’s going to be my job to draw a little more attention,” Butler said. “Probably not as much as Steph does draw, but I’ve gotta find a way to score and get everyone else involved.
“I’m not a volume shooter, never have been, probably never will be. But I’m going to play the right way. … I’m just going to have to be efficient. Have to go hard, I know I’m going to have a lot of minutes coming way. I train for this. I’m going to be ready for it.”
He and Hield were ready on Tuesday. They should be ready on Thursday, too, and over the next days of this series. And if either one of them stumbles, they know the other will be right there, barking and gesturing and probably talking about it at a press conference later. The new Batman and Robin can’t wait.