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Why Butler vs. Johnson is matchup to watch in Warriors-Nets game

The Warriors close their five-game road trip through the Eastern Conference on Thursday by confronting a reminder of past vulnerability.

Remember the Brooklyn Nets? The team that came into Chase Center on Nov. 25 and wiped out an 18-point deficit to slap with Warriors with a loss that sent them on a downward spiral?

Golden State (34-28) has a chance for retaliation when it meets Brooklyn (21-40) at Barclays Center. Coverage on NBC Sports Bay Area begins at 3:30 p.m. with Warriors Pregame Live, with tipoff scheduled for 4:30.

The Warriors, vastly improved since acquiring Jimmy Butler III four weeks ago, can prove they’ve reversed their tendency for gagging against inferior teams.

Butler projects to be primarily responsible for defending Brooklyn small forward Cameron Johnson, one of the NBA best 3-point shooters. He’s second on the Nets in scoring, averaging 18.8 points per game on 47.3-percent shooting from the field, including 39.8 from deep. He has scored at least 20 points in 17 of 46 games, with a season-high of 37.

Though dynamic guard Cam Thomas leads Brooklyn in scoring at 24.2 points per game, Johnson has been a more reliable barometer of team success; the Nets have won five of the last six games in which he topped the 20-point mark.

The Nets, plummeting toward the draft lottery, are 1-6 since the All-Star break and four of the losses were by double digits. They are no better than they were in November, when they administered a harsh lesson.

Find the latest Golden State Warriors news, highlights, analysis and more with NBC Sports Bay Area and California.

The Warriors were 12-4 and atop the Western Conference when Brooklyn (7-10, seventh in the East) came to Chase with four rotation players. They had blown a 17-point lead in the final 14 minutes of their previous game at San Antonio and were in position to recover.

Leading 86-68 with seven minutes left in the third quarter, the Warriors were outscored 60-34 over the final 19 minutes. Losing a big second-half lead for the second straight game was the genesis of a 15-game stretch during which they were 3-12 and settled into prolonged sub-mediocrity.

The Warriors have since revamped. The collective self-assurance is appreciably higher than it has been at any time this season. In the glow of their recent surge, they also know another loss to Brooklyn – being swept in the season series – would be disastrous.

Golden State remembers November, even if Butler was in Miami. The approach to this game will be indicate whether that lesson was fully absorbed.

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By Monte Poole • Published 13 mins ago • Updated 14 mins ago

This article tagged under:

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Warriors’ path to favorable playoff seed wide open over last 20 games

By winning six of their first seven games coming out of the All-Star break, the Warriors are rolling into the NBA homestretch in fine position to reach their regular-season goal stated a few weeks ago.

The No. 6 seed in the Western Conference is theirs to lose after a tremendous 114-102 victory over the New York Knicks on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.

“Really good win,” coach Steve Kerr told reporters in New York. “They all count, but this felt good. On the road, on a back-to-back, against a great team. Kind of hanging in there when shots weren’t going in in the first half. I liked how solid we were for the whole 48. Every possession mattered and there was purpose.

“Jimmy [Butler] has a lot to do with that. But I’d give all our guys a lot of credit because they’re finding a real identity and it’s fun to watch unfold.”

With 20 games remaining, the Warriors are poised to sprint toward the NBA playoffs. If they can maintain the pace they’ve set since Butler arrived, winning nine of 11 games, they’ll reach 50 wins, which could be enough to finish fifth in the West. They are three games behind the fifth-place Houston Rockets. (Here is where we note that only 12 days ago the Warriors were three games behind the sixth-place Los Angeles Clippers.)

Even if Golden State cools down the stretch, it still can achieve the 48 wins that would all but assure escaping the dreaded NBA play-in tournament. After two-plus months of searching for their best selves, they seem to have found it.

“We just try to defend at a high level, first and foremost,” Curry said. “With Draymond [Green] at the 5 and Jimmy at the 4, you can play pretty fast and try to speed teams up on both ends. And you try to limit your turnovers, and usually good things are going to happen. Whether we make or miss shots, we don’t really live and die by that. It’s truly the fundamentals of the game: Play good defense, take care of the ball.”

Find the latest Golden State Warriors news, highlights, analysis and more with NBC Sports Bay Area and California.

Coming out of the All-Star break, we separated Golden State’s final 27 into three categories: 1) Great win; 2) Good win; 3) Painful loss. Here’s how the Warriors fared in the first seven:

There were three opportunities for “great wins,” and the Warriors achieved a clean sweep. A win at the Sacramento Kings, a win over the Dallas Mavericks at Chase Center and the win over the favored Knicks.

There were two opportunities for “good wins.” The Warriors split them, beating the Magic in Orlando but losing to the 76ers in Philadelphia.

There were two games that stacked up as potentially “painful losses.” They avoided both, with double-digit wins over the Hornets at Chase last week and Monday in Charlotte.

Here is an updated – and recalibrated – look at the three categories over the final 20 games:

March 17 vs. Denver Nuggets; March 18 vs. Milwaukee Bucks; April 1 at Memphis Grizzlies; April 3 at Los Angeles Lakers; April 4 vs. Denver; April 6 vs. Houston Rockets; April 13 at LA Clippers.

Notable: The Warriors have lost eight consecutive games to the Nuggets, with the last win coming on March 10, 2022. They’re 0-3 against the Lakers this season. They’re 0-3 against the Clippers this season and have lost six in a row to LA. The Rockets are 3-4 since the All-Star break and have lost their last three games.

March 8 vs. Detroit Pistons; March 10 vs. Portland Trail Blazers; March 13 vs. Sacramento: March 15 vs. New York; March 25 at Miami Heat; April 8 at Phoenix Suns; April 11 at Portland.

Notable: The Pistons moved out of the “painful loss” category because they’ve won 12 of their last 15 games and officially are legit. The Blazers having won five of six, and 15 of their last 21, also climbed into the “good win” category. The Suns beat a winning team (Clippers) for the first time since January on Tuesday and are stuck on a magical mystery tour – without the magic – but have three dangerous stars.

March 6 at Brooklyn Nets; March 19 vs. Toronto Raptors; March 22 at Atlanta Hawks; March 28 at New Orleans Pelicans; March 30 at San Antonio Spurs; April 9 at San Antonio.

Notable: Can’t sleep on the Nets because the finale to a road trip can be challenging. The Warriors lost to the underdog Raptors on Jan. 14 at Toronto, so there is a retribution factor. The Spurs are missing their two most important figures, as coach Gregg Popovich and center Victor Wembanyama are out for the season.

The Warriors are vastly improved in the most pertinent areas since acquiring Butler. They’re winning games the pre-Jimmy Warriors too often lost. The only loss since the All-Star game, in Philly, came with Butler on the bench nursing back spasms.

With a seven-game homestand beginning Saturday, it’s another opportunity to assert some fashion of homecourt advantage. Dub Nation has shed its collective anxiety and is feeling more encouraged than at any time since the 2022 postseason.

If the Warriors avoid the slipups that result in painful losses, they have a favorable path ahead.

They’ll need to win at least nine of the 14 games in the win category to secure a top-six spot in the West standings. They’re on track to do that.