Jimmy Butler gives Warrior’s ‘the power in free throw’

Two matches and two Hardy victories with Jimmy Butler have not completely remodeled and relaunched Warriors, but something is going on here.

Sure, Bucks didn’t have Giannis Antetokounmpo for Warriors’ Surging 125-111 victory in Milwaukee on Monday night. Of course, the very mediocre bulls had just traded zach avalanche away before Warriors beat them in Chicago on Saturday.

But Warriors have definitely looked more targeted, less skiing and much harder, since Butler joined them on the field in Chicago and began to hammer his shoulders in defenders and stroll to the free throwing line.

Of course, the new warriors are not invincible. They lost a lot of circumference defense by shopping away Andrew Wiggins for Butler, and they will fight to compensate for it for the rest of this season. They still have to work up the Western Conference position-after this two-game-winning row they are 27-26 and in 10th place. But they were in 11th place just a few days ago, they are now only a few games from the valuable # 6 seeds (which would take them out of the game) and they have earned the right to start imagining, How far this could go.

“I think the guys are doing really well with these two games and acknowledging that both games were games we may have lost earlier in the season,” Steve Kerr told journalists in Milwaukee after the game. “I think the fact that Jimmy went to the line 15 times tonight, 13 times the other night, shows you the power of free throw and the ability to get your defense set and run a game when it is to be run.”

In fact, the 28 combined free-kick attempts in the last two matches are the most every warrior have accumulated over a two-game since Kevin Durant went to the line a combined 30 times in November 2019 matches. And at any time a warrior player who is not called Stephen Curry can get into a sentence with Durant, that’s a great achievement.

Butler made 12 of these attempts on Monday. He scored 20 points and also had 9 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 steals in 31 minutes. And for the most part, he was just a physical and emotional power-when curry rested, butler took quietly prominently; When Warriors’ violation stopped a little, Butler forced Bucks to bother him. As he grinded, Curry could rest easily. And when Curry came back in the game early in the fourth quarter of fresh legs, everything started for Warriors.

This is not how it has worked for most of this season as Warriors hoped for the same from Dennis Schroder, Wiggins or several others. It’s only two games. It will look clumsy at times in the future, almost certainly. But things happen very quickly with Butler and Warriors right now.

“It’s been absolutely seamless, and it’s because of Jimmy’s IQ,” Kerr said. “He just has an incredible sense of the game. All we should do is give him a few of our actions, terminology over the past few days. We run three or four things and otherwise it’s just basketball. And he knows how to play basketball. “

Since Kerr has repeated a little disco solid for the past few months, as his team has tumbled in the position: Warriors do not have players who can drive to the basket and do not have players who can draw violations.

They do now.

Warriors don’t feel so tight now that they have butler to save them when curry doesn’t go ballist. They are more confident in what they are doing with offense because they are more balanced. They can slow down the game and frustrate the opponent by watching the Butler March to the Free Castle Line.

It’s not just save us, Steph anymore. It saves us, Jimmy. But they also still have Steph.

Here are the most important things that have changed quickly for Warriors with this trade – and how it could play out in April and maybe May.