It’s Jimmy Butler‘s time to step up with an exhausted Stephen Curry taking the night off against the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday, March 18, as the Golden State Warriors try to remain in sixth place in the Western Conference.
“I’m not going to say [Curry is] wearing down, but it’s OK to be tired,” Butler told reporters following Monday’s loss to a shorthanded Denver Nuggets team. “That’s on myself, and that’s on us as a unit to pick up the slack for him. As [much as] everybody wants to think he’s superhuman, he is not. He is our leader and we must protect him at all times.”
Curry committed a game-high seven turnovers, including an errant alley-oop pass to Jonathan Kuminga with 1:53 left. The costly turnover killed the hopes of a Warriors comeback as the Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray-less Nuggets escaped with a 114-105 win.
Curry missed 15 of 21 shots and hit only 4-of-14 3-pointers. Butler, who led the Warriors with 23 points on 8-of-16 shooting, felt he and the rest of the team needed to do more to support Curry.
“I will tell you that,” Butler added. “That’s on myself, for sure, and everybody else to make sure we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing and give my man a break.”
“He’s tired,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr said of Curry.
Over his last five games, Curry struggled from the field, shooting only 37.2% and 32.2% from the 3-point line.
“I think he’s been tired the last few games and so we’ve got to find a way to get him his juice back,” Kerr added.
Steph Curry Insists ‘He’s Fine’
Amid the fatigue talks, Curry insisted he feels “fine.” But he admitted that his lingering back issue is what he felt causing the dip in his performance.
“Obviously, I haven’t played great at all, so everybody — including Coach — is going to try to figure out why,” Curry told reporters. “Mostly the turnovers, dumb plays all night, but had a really good run. We expect to have a level of consistency and whatnot, so when it doesn’t happen, it becomes a question.
“I feel like more so my back that I was dealing with the last couple of days. See how that responds tomorrow. But otherwise, I feel pretty solid.”
It was a lost opportunity for the Warriors to get a separation in the tight race to the playoffs in the loaded Western Conference. A loss against the Bucks would drop them to seventh place.
Jimmy Butler Vows ‘They Will Be Better’
Butler who also added eight rebounds and six assists, does not want to dwell on the loss and looks forward to covering up lost ground.
“We know that we have to be better,” Butler told reporters. “We know that we will be better. We’re expected to win every game from here on out. We are. We put this behind us knowing that we can be better, and we will be.”
After the Bucks, the Warriors will have a light schedule — four of their next five games are against teams currently outside the top 10 of each conference — beginning on Thursday, March 20 against the Toronto Raptors.
