After suffering a pelvic injury, Jimmy Butler sat on the sidelines watching the Warriors-Rockets Game 3 at Chase Center. He was confident the Warriors would do just as well without him, and their 104-93 win proved him right. No wonder he was quick to thank Batman and others. Wait, what? “Thanks batman and team. excluding buddy,” he wrote on Instagram, referring to Stephen Curry as a superhero while also continuing his banter with Buddy Hield.

Extending the joke, Hield referred to himself as Alfred—Batman’s butler—after the game and stated, “I knew Robin [Jimmy Butler] was out tonight, so I had to step up. Had to be Alfred tonight.” But what many fans missed was that the real story was brewing on the sidelines, where Butler, in his street clothes, sat beside Hield, and while Curry was there too, he simply chose not to interrupt the moment both his teammates shared.

Butler mocked Hield and his dribbling habits… again! The player made some animated dribbling movements while Hield awkwardly mimed his back. And Curry, seated right next to them, simply ignored the banter taking place. But hey, this isn’t the first time Jimmy Butler took some hilarious shots at his teammate. Remember the Warriors’ 95-85 Game 1 win over the Houston Rockets?

“And Buddy … stop trying to dribble the ball; I hate that,” Butler stated to the media then. Well, Hield did not have an assist or turnover in order to help the Warriors, but it was his dribbling skills that worried his 35-year-old teammate. Perhaps he has a reason. Hield is more of a catch-and-shoot specialist and career 39.7-percent 3-point shooter, but isn’t known to be a Steph Curry-kind of playmaker.

And Jimmy Butler’s earlier assessment of Buddy Hield’s ball-handling couldn’t have been foreshadowed any better. The Rockets’ suffocating defense in Game 3, resulted in often throwing a box-and-one at Stephen Curry, forcing the Warriors’ secondary players to create off the dribble: a glaring weakness, particularly for Hield. A specialist in shooting, not isolation or dribble creation, Hield was exposed twice in crucial second-half possessions.

First, isolated against Jalen Green on the right wing, he misdribbled the ball off his own foot for a turnover in a tooth-and-nail game. Moments later, he was pick-pocketed by none other than the slow-footed Steven Adams, which was an indictment of just how uncomfortable he looked under pressure. So the burden fell entirely on Curry.

Golden State entered Game 3 tied 1-1 with Houston—a high-pressure moment—one they usually embrace, but without Jimmy Butler, the emotional compass of this team felt missing. Curry dropped 12 points in the third to keep them alive. Gary Payton II and Jonathan Kuminga brought defensive sparks. But around them, small fractures showed: rushed possessions, careless turnovers, players trying to do too much. Tonight? The Warriors matched the Rockets’ energy. But inside, their own cohesion felt just a beat off.

And Curry’s body language reflected it: laser-focused, but visibly less patient. Yes, GSW won, but tonight their margin for error was thinner than ever. Stephen Curry carried the offense through Houston’s traps while Draymond Green backed the defense. But every time Buddy tried to freelance or Moses Moody missed a rotation, the tension in the arena thickened.

The Warriors know they’re winning battles. But the war will require tighter discipline, sharper trust, and players like Hield sticking to their real strengths.

Rockets smell blood. Warriors are walking a razor’s edge.

There’s a simmer inside Golden State right now; Not panic, not chaos, but something more dangerous: a slow, creeping uneasiness. You could see it when Steve Kerr yanked Quinten Post after a missed rotation, trying to plug gaps before they widened. You could hear it when Draymond Green’s voice cracked sharper than usual across the Chase Center rafters, barking after Moses Moody’s late closeout.

Without Jimmy Butler to command defensive attention, Houston packed the paint tighter, daring Golden State’s supporting cast to beat them one-on-one. They blitzed Curry relentlessly off every ball screen, showed high stunt help whenever he initiated offense, and loaded the elbows to bait Buddy Hield and Moses Moody into uncomfortable drives.

And for long stretches, it worked. But Golden State’s usual symphony—quick passing, fluid relocations, clean spacing crumbled into rushed isolations and desperate shots. Their secondary players froze under the suffocating coverage. Their offense shrank from a flowing river into a series of clogged tributaries.

Hence, for the most part, it felt like, first time all postseason, they’re surviving on Curry’s fumes. His solo 9–0 run to close the second quarter didn’t just cut into Houston’s lead, it resuscitated a team teetering on collapse. For all the threes, the fastbreak bursts, and the defensive grit? Tonight wasn’t dominance. It was exhaustion. It was Curry dragging the Warriors through double-teams, through late switches, through blaring Rockets physicality and back to the finish line. And when the buzzer sounded? The emotional strain finally spilled out.

Everybody can see this shift inside the Warriors’ locker room, especially Ime Udoka and his Rockets. They know Curry can’t perform miracle after miracle without help; They know Golden State’s second-tier ball handlers hesitate under pressure; They know Draymond Green’s emotions, which were once the Warriors’ rallying cry, are now closer to becoming liabilities.

Expect Game 4 to reflect it.

Houston won’t just defend harder. Instead, they’ll scheme nastier. Look for them to blitz Curry immediately after he crosses half-court, forcing frantic early passes and disrupting Golden State’s timing before plays even start. Look for tight paint-packing, closing driving lanes for Payton and Kuminga, daring the Warriors to live or die on low-quality threes. And yes, expect soft box-and-one coverages against Curry, combined with sudden zone traps, gambling that Golden State’s shooters will eventually break under the strain.

But Houston’s real aim? It’s not just tactical anymore. It’s psychological. They want hesitation to creep into Golden State’s passes and frustration to brew after every wasted possession. They want Curry isolated on an island, burdened with carrying everything. So Golden State’s counter will have to be surgical. They need faster short-roll reads from Draymond Green, attacking Houston’s aggressive blitzes with sharp four-on-threes.

If Butler isn’t back by then, Moody, Kuminga, and Payton will have to show relentless baseline cutting, especially in terms of break zone coverages and force defensive rotations. They need zero wasted dribbles from Buddy Hield: Only quick fires or quick swings, never extended isolation. What do you think?