Jimmy Butler’s knee injury puts Warriors’ dreams for 2025-26 season in jeopardy

SAN FRANCISCO – The look on Stephen Curry’s face told a tale of naked despair. He’d seen disaster unfold and quickly realized what it could mean for the Warriors.Curry was seconds removed from watching his primary co-star on the Warriors, Jimmy Butler III, sustain a right knee injury severe enough to require two teammates to lift him off the floor and practically carry him into the locker room in the third quarter. He was done for the night.Butler was scheduled to undergo a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) test later Monday night, with Golden State expected to provide an update on Tuesday.The Warriors are hoping they’re not done for the season. Though their immediate response to losing Butler was to intensify their effort and close out a 135-112 victory over Miami, their future suddenly looks as glum as the expression on Curry’s face in the aftermath.“You never like to see a situation like that, especially for somebody as tough as he is,” Curry said of Butler. “Praying for their best, obviously with scans and all that. We’ll figure it out, but hopefully he’s alright.”Butler was leading Golden State scorers against the team from which he parted bitterly 11 months ago when disaster struck with 7:41 remaining in the third quarter. Leaping for an entry pass from Brandin Podziemski near the rim, he landed at the same time as Miami guard Davion Mitchell backed into his lower body, buckling Butler’s planted right leg.Butler dropped the ball and went down in a heap, clutching his right knee, his face etched in pain, and remained on the floor for a couple of minutes. Jimmy Butler had to be helped to the locker room after appearing to injury his knee pic.twitter.com/sOSpAxbbAP — Warriors on NBCS (&commat;NBCSWarriors) January 20, 2026 “It’s something you hadn’t seen before,” Curry said. “Usually, you just expect him to get up. Even if he just can’t finish the game, to just kind of hop up get off to the sideline.“But I just told him to take his time, you know, figure out what he needed in that moment.”Butler needed help getting up. He needed more help, making his way to the locker room with the support of Buddy Hield and Gary Payton II. Butler had played 21 minutes, finishing with 17 points, four assists, three rebounds and two steals. He was dealing.Then he was gone for the night, leaving the Warriors staring vacantly into the abyss of an unknown.“He was gone by the time the game ended,” coach Steve Kerr said. “We’re all really concerned, but we’ll know more after the MRI. We don’t know anything at this point. Everybody is subdued because of the injury, waiting to hear the news.”What we do know is that Butler’s injury, whether he misses a day or a year, came precisely as Golden State was playing its best basketball this season, winning 12 of its last 16 games. The victory over the Heat gave the Warriors their first four-game win streak.The Warriors have won games this season without Draymond Green, including Monday night when he was sidelined due to a sprained right ankle. They’ve won without Curry. They’ve also won without Butler.But winning for an extended period without any member of the veteran trio is another challenge altogether.“He’s old reliable,” Curry said. “He makes his presence felt pretty much every game. The idea of what he does for us is he just meets whatever moment it is, whether he needs to score or whether he gets everybody organized defensively, what he does with all his playmaking.”Butler has missed six games but still leads the Warriors in minutes played this season. He’s their No. 2 scorer, averaging 20.1 points per game on 52.1-percent shooting from the field, including 38.1 percent beyond the arc. He leads the team by a wide margin in free throws, connecting on 86.2 percent from the line. He’s second in assists and second in rebounds.Yet his production is but one component of Butler’s impact on the Warriors.“He’s an alpha,” Kerr said. “He’s one of those guys in the league who everybody else in the gym knows that’s the guy. And he has that presence.“But he also has that game where we can play through him possession after possession. And so yeah, assuming we’ll be without him for a little bit. We’re going to miss him. We got a lot of lot of players you can play, and we’re showing our depth right now, but we’ll just wait for the news to figure out what’s next.”It’s apparent from Butler’s reaction and the look on Curry’s face that the Warriors are bracing for a prolonged absence. It took two months for them to start their climb from mediocrity and advance toward NBA relevance.It took one brutal moment for all that encouraging progress to slam into a wall and leave the Warriors praying for the kind of outcome that won’t derail their season.Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast

Jimmy Butler’s knee injury puts Warriors’ dreams for 2025-26 season in jeopardy

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