Today, the Warriors continued to travel to challenge the Rockets, and in the end they lost to the Rockets, and the Rockets pulled one back, and the series between the two sides was tied 1:1. Butler played just over seven minutes before leaving the game due to injury, and the team later announced that he would not return. After the absence of Butler, the Warriors' competitiveness plummeted, resulting in the game being pressed by the Rockets, and finally lost the game.
With or without Butler, the Warriors' style of play on the court is completely different. When Curry is heavily guarded, Butler can solve the problem at this point, and Butler can also help Curry relieve defensive pressure to a certain extent on the court. But without Butler, the opponent put all the defensive energy on Curry, and even did not hesitate to send 2~3 people to defend. The Rockets are betting that the rest of the Warriors won't shoot, and they don't believe the Warriors can beat them other than Curry.
So at this time, we need other players on the Warriors team to step up, and we need players who have performed well in the regular season to step up. But the rest of the Warriors' performances today were not as good as they could have been, and Hield's overall performance in these two games in particular was hardly satisfactory. He only scored two points in the last game and only five points in today's game. He averaged just 3.5 points per game in the two games of the playoffs, which was a stark difference to his regular season performance.
During the regular season, Hield sometimes made more than five three-pointers in a game, which could help the team win. But when it comes to the playoffs, which are extremely physical, Hield will be noticeably uncomfortable. At the end of the day, he's a regular season player, not a playoff player. And he doesn't have much playoff experience in his career, and he has only played in the playoffs twice in his career. So Hield's type of player may be difficult for the Warriors to rely on, and even he's not as good as rookie rookie Post.
For the Warriors, Butler's injury could determine their fate this season. If Bassetler is sidelined for a long time, the Warriors may have a hard time this year, as Curry may struggle to explode under the Rockets' kind of chase and block defense. Let's see which Warriors player can play the Wonder Soldier next.