The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavs more dominant than Thunder? + Playoff Jimmy saves Warriors
Tue, 29 Apr 2025
Jimmy Butler returned from injury to lead the Warriors to a game 4 victory and a 3-1 series lead over the Rockets. Dave DuFour and Es Baraheni are joined by the Athletic’s Anthony Slater to discuss the Warriors win, Jimmy Butler’s game, and the aftermath. Then, Es and Dave take a look at the first round sweeps for the Thunder and Cavs to decide who has been most dominant and look ahead to Clippers and Nuggets game 5.Host: Dave DuFourWith: Es Baraheni & Anthony SlaterExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson Moodyhttps://www.nytimes.com/athletic/nba/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What did Jimmy Butler do in Game 4?
Anthony Slater hanging out late after the Warriors pick up a big win in game four to go up 3-1. Anthony, I think we saw a playoff, Jimmy, between the clutch free throws and the clutch rebound. They were probably glad to have him out there last night.
Yeah, it was a great day to be Jimmy Butler for not only, obviously, they won the game and he had a flying rebound, 27 points, 12 free throws. But in front of me right now, I'm seeing a replay of the Heat game, and currently the Cavaliers are up 38-12. And I'm not going to call Jimmy Butler a petty individual, you know.
But I have an inkling that he may have enjoyed both NBA playoff games tonight, if you know what I mean. But, yeah, 40-12. the Cavaliers, by the way, at this point in this replay. But yeah, I mean, Jimmy Butler, to me, like he said, I talked to him just a little bit at his locker postgame. He talked about how painful the injury was.
Chapter 2: How did the Warriors perform against the Rockets?
Steve Kerr is saying he probably would have missed one to two weeks. Jimmy kind of confirmed that like it was a regular season. And he kind of tried to play game three, but admitted that like it was it was a good decision and he would have like basically been waddling on the court if they had allowed him to play game three.
And tonight he mentioned, he's like, look at me running in the first three quarters. He said, remember when he had the chase down hard foul on Dylan Brooks? He was like, go rewatch that play. I'm scooting up the court. Because he said, not only did he fall hard on the, you know, kind of ass, I guess we're just going to say that on this podcast, but...
Yeah, his like hip kind of like tailbone area kind of came up and it's made it really hard for him to like lift his left leg as he's running. I guess he loosened up in the fourth. He was really good in the fourth. The five free throws that clinched the game, right? He gets fouled on a pretty bad Dylan Bryce court and foul in the corner for three.
And then the rebound was a lot of people were talking about postgame. Draymond Green gets to stop on saying good late. But Adams has, you know, he's muscling. He has great position. Yeah. He does. Adams gets that rebound if there's 99% of wings in the league are the one protecting the corner. Jimmy Butler.
Jimmy Butler got it off the rim. I mean, your video, actually, if you guys look on social media, on Anthony's social media, you posted a great angle of it. And Jimmy Butler reads the play. As soon as the shot goes up, he breaks to the rim, and he literally grabs the rebound at the basket. I mean, if he's a half second late, Stephen Adams gets that back, probably with the putback.
And Rockins are at one with five seconds left. I agree. Instead, he gets the foul, hits both free throws, of course. Again, 12-12 from the line. In a series, by the way, that you could say maybe he's partly decided at the line. Houston's missed now at this point. It was 35 free throws in the series at one point. 12, I know. They missed 12 last night. Yeah, 12 in a in a one possession game.
They missed 12 free throws. I mean, like and again, that's partly who you're dealing with. Right. This is a lower skilled kind of like offensively deficient, tough team that I think, you know, we are seeing their flaws in this first round series. And we are thinking we are seeing the things they need to go into the offseason and potentially try to correct.
It felt like a lot of the decision-making from the Rocket side of things was a little uneven in the fourth quarter. You think about the challenge on that Jimmy Butler foul, some of the double-big lineups going back and forth between Shingun and Adams, which was working, I thought, against the Warriors, that size.
What do you think from seeing it live, were there any major mistakes from the Rockets that jumped out to you where it's like, that's the game, other than the free throws, obviously?
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Chapter 3: What factors contributed to the Rockets' performance?
So they're not even going to review that. But Dylan Brooks gets Jimmy Butler fired up. that big foul on Jimmy Butler Jimmy Butler is really nice to the refs it's funny it's one of the things I've noticed go look at how few technical fouls he's had over the course of his career it's purposeful it is it is
So Dylan Brooks has also actually been pretty good on the floor this year. I think he should get some credit. Like the Warriors view him as a shooter they need to get out on. He's not the guy. Back in the Memphis series, he's the guy that used to be funneling the ball through. That's no longer the case. I actually think he's played well. But yes, got Draymond Green going.
And Jimmy Butler even just said postgame, get me on record. I don't like Dylan Brooks. You know how Dylan Brooks laughed when Jimmy Butler was curling some insults?
somebody it was it was presented to jimmy butler in the post game like look like you two were having fun out there and he's like no no no no like he i think he respects the competitive level of dylan brooks but he's like that was not fun and i do not like dylan brooks get that on record so uh maybe i don't know you know how like it's like competitive championship level athletes sure it's like that's
Sure, Dylan Brooks is the reason you got going. Like, no, game four is the reason you got going. Like, you need to win this. Jimmy Butler, you're 35. You do not have a championship at this stage of your career. Like, this is your moment. That's why he played.
Well, this is the last ride, right?
Well, it's two or three years, they believe. You know, they think they can win next year. Honestly, I'd say in this Jimmy Butler era, which we can now call this, like, last stage of the Warriors, I think they've always viewed the second season when they can maybe make some roster tweaks this summer. Yeah.
As though the one to go after, I say that while also knowing the fact that they chased themselves all the way up to the seventh seed and got the path that they got, which is a very beatable Houston team at the two. And then, you know, probably the wolves in the next round, if they advance, like this might be the year, even if the roster maybe is not as sharpened as they want it to be.
25-8 when Jimmy Butler is in the lineup. So that is a pretty good proof of concept for next season if they want to roll with it. Another guy who was massive in this game was Brandon Pajimski. Huge rebounds, massive shot making for him to come out with this type of game. I mean, he's been pretty good all series for them, I feel, stepping into that role. But what did you see from Pajimski?
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Chapter 4: Who was the most dominant team in the first round, Cavs or Thunder?
All their doctors and trainers are coming through and Brandon Pajemski suddenly looks like he, you know, he's ghost white and he's coming back followed by one of their kind of like middle or tier trainers because everybody else was worried about Jimmy Butler. Yeah. And I was like, oh, man, Pajemski looks horrible. And it was like nobody cared at the time because it was like Jimmy Butler.
He didn't like to just break his hip. But that was like lost in the game to loss was like, yes, Pajemski was good in game one. Really good. Has been their fourth best player for two months now. And then was like horrific in game two because he was just like.
really ill he went 0-5 shooting I don't think he hit rim on the five shots and then was benched down the stretch you know he took an IV at halftime trying to play anyway to your point like he's he said he felt a little better in game three right I mean everybody's been through a sickness like that where okay two days later you're not as I don't feel as horrible as I did it like you're not 100% I just went 72 hours without eating I've now ate for 24 hours but I'm not quite myself tonight he looked like himself again
And what did he finish with 28? That's huge. There are completely different team when he's playing like that. Pre-game sushi, not the Houston seafood.
Not in Houston. Don't do it in Houston. I mean, you know, respectfully, it's not that far from the ocean. It's funny to be talking about a big Warriors playoff win and to spend 10 minutes without talking about Steph Curry. The Rockets did a really good job. of just limiting his shots and making him work to get open. I mean, it wasn't even like he necessarily had like a bad game.
The Rockets game plan really just took him out of it. You know, you worried at all, like, did they figure something out? Now the Warriors have to sweat this in game five, or is this one of those ones that's going to happen every now and then?
Well, I'll tell you a few things. He had a really bad stretch. I would say that late second quarter, after all, like just the dust-ups and mix-ups, they threw four straight pick-six turnovers to put Houston up 57-50. It happened. Steph was bad during that stretch. I would in no way say Houston has figured anything out. Now, they did do more double-big. They did a zone with the double-big.
They've got a lot of long athletes against them. Houston's here for a reason. They won 52 games. They're a two seed. We clearly see it's not their half-court offense or their star perimeter scoring. Or play calling. They're very difficult to deal with for Steph Curry. Now, he's found ways and found cracks and success in this series. Again, I'm not
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Chapter 5: What mistakes did the Rockets make during the game?
like he'll probably have a productive game five, game six, whatever. As far as game five is concerned, like the Warriors, I would favor Houston. The Warriors show this in the championship season. They get up 3-1. Oh, okay. Not for the series, but for game five, right? Y'all remember the Memphis series? By the way,
There's been a lot of on the ground from the Warriors and from people around comparing this Houston series to the 22 second round Memphis series. Really physical, bruising young team that just want, you know, Dylan Brooks heavily involved. And that series was a game one Warriors win in Memphis. Game two loss. Come home. Squeak to buy. Go up three. One.
Go to Houston and get blown out like the heat got blown out tonight. Right. I think they're around 55 in that game. and then come home for game six and close it out. So if this is going to continue on that Memphis formula, that's what I'm thinking. Do you all remember who was the head coach of the Warriors for game six to close out the Memphis Grizzlies? Not Steve Kerr.
Was it Jabba? No.
Mike Brown.
Mike Brown. Oh, my gosh.
Yes.
Oh, my goodness. What a throwback. Raymond Ritter came in pregame and said, Steve Kerr has COVID. And Mike Brown will be the head coach tonight. Mike Brown has an undefeated record as a playoff head coach of the Warriors. He went like 12-0. Anyway, sorry. I took you guys down.
That's a good trivia bit. I forgot completely. I just memory-holed that whole championship run to a certain degree. Anthony, go and read Anthony over at The Athletic. Thanks for hanging out, staying up late for us. Guys, stick around. After the break, S and I are going to debate who's been more dominant so far, the Thunder or the Cavs.
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Chapter 6: How did the Warriors' coaching situation affect Game 4?
which is a very old reference, but wow.
All right. Um, and they did it obviously the caveat of John Morant and all that type of stuff. That is one impressive part to this. Also, I don't think they had the best SGA series. Like SGA was kind of, did he even really pop off for one? He had the final game was the most impressive game that he had in game four. He really cooked and it obviously sent the Grizzlies home.
But for the most part, not a great series from from SGA. And they still handled business. Right. So you can argue one side that way from the Cavs side. Darius Garland didn't play for two of these games, right? Yeah. They basically just walked out there in Miami and dominated. Wasn't even a chance. There was bickering and smack talking and trash talking between Tyler Hero and Darius Garland.
Didn't even matter. For no reason. Yeah, for no reason. It wasn't even a conversation. It was like they were trying to stir up something. Nothing could even remotely be stirred up. I'm going to say it's the Cavs. The Cavs did have the better sweep just because of how absolutely dominant they were. You think about Ty Jerome, who basically put up 22-6-5 in this series through four games.
Wildly impressive. And that's from your sixth man. That's a guy who's coming off the bench for you, putting up, you know, all-star level-ish numbers through four games. I think it's the Cavs. But in terms of looking forward, I have a question for you. I'll throw a question back at you. Okay. All right. I like it.
From both of these teams, which I think there's a likely chance both of them make a pretty decent run here. We see them for at least one more round.
We'll see.
We're going to see them in the next round. They've made it. Yeah, true. Who is the most important player? Now, this is different than best player. Right. Who is their most important player?
Yeah, I mean, I like obviously like Shea Gildas Alexander is the most important player, right? Like we all know this. Yeah, but we know. For me, for the Thunder, I think it's Chet Holmgren. And for the Cavs, I think it's Evan Mobley. I think those are the guys that are going to have to have. big time offensive series in going forward because it's going to be harder for Donovan Mitchell.
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