SAN FRANCISCO — Golden State Warriors wing Jimmy Butler left Tuesday night’s 118-107 win over the Phoenix Suns with lower back soreness, an issue that emerged in the aftermath of the team’s Saturday night loss in Indianapolis.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr deemed Butler questionable for Wednesday night’s game in Sacramento, but sources told ESPN that Butler is expected to miss the contest. Stephen Curry will also be sidelined against the Kings, and Draymond Green is considered iffy.
Curry scored 28 points in 34 minutes in the win over the Suns, but coughed and sniffled through a postgame news conference, revealing that he has a seasonal cold that is worsening.
“Tonight in the second half, the tank was on [empty],” Curry said.
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Curry said he would wait until after a meeting with team doctors before deciding his status for Wednesday, but Kerr made the call himself, saying Curry won’t make the 90-minute bus trip to Sacramento.
“I don’t care what the doctors say,” Kerr said. “We got to get him some rest. He’s not playing tomorrow.”
Butler was initially listed as questionable against the Suns. He warmed up on the practice court 90 minutes before tipoff and was given the green light, but he appeared limited in his 14 first-half minutes, missing four of his five shots.
“He felt like he could go,” Kerr said. “Then he tweaked it a little bit.”
Butler subbed out at the 7:04 mark of the second quarter and eventually exited for the locker room. He didn’t close the first half and wasn’t on the bench in the second half. The team officially ruled him out in the third quarter. He finished with two points, four rebounds, two assists and one turnover.
Butler has been durable since his trade to the Warriors in February, appearing in 30 of 31 regular-season games down the stretch and missing only one playoff game after a brutal fall on his tailbone in Game 2 of their first-round series in Houston.
Butler had started all eight games to open this season. Curry and Green have also appeared in every game.
The Warriors are 5-3 after Tuesday night’s win. Eight of their next nine games are on the road.
“I could tell on the [recent] road trip, all three of those guys looked tired,” Kerr said. “They just ran into a little bit of a wall.”
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