In a night of multiple Dub Nation Ls, the Jimmy Butler injury stings the most. The good thing is that they take a 1-1 draw into a double-header at the Chase Center. But the bad thing is that they might have to do it without their best attacking option. Reports do say that he’s due for an MRI later today. So the Warriors faithful will be hoping that the two days off are enough for Buckets to deliver buckets in game 3.

Just 8 minutes in, and Houston Rockets starlet guard Amen Thompson committed an act that could be deemed as treason under Bay Area laws. Butler took a hard fall after Thompson collided with him during Wednesday’s opening-round playoff game. Butler had been going up for a rebound and was undercut, sending him crashing to the floor.

The outcome? A pelvic contusion for Butler, seen limping off the court. And just to put it into context, we have GSW reporters speaking on just how bad it looked in the first place.

“Mike Dunleavy was in and out and Jimmy Butler was on the opposite side of the arena when I got to kind of the locker room area. It’s probably like a hundred yard walk and he was going like 0.1 mile an hour. It probably took him six minutes to get 100 yards or whatever. He was really gingerly walking, obviously favoring that tail bump.”

This rings deja vu bells for the Dub Nation. A pelvic contusion? They’ve seen this before. And to Stephen Curry of all people. He’d missed a couple games due to a similar instance happening in a season game. But the reporters did also talk about Jimmy Butler himself experiencing it once before in his career, which he shrugged off and switch on god mode as usual.

But what’s to come? Well, Athletic reporters are asking only one thing of the Dub Nation- patience. Courtside equipements aren’t state of the art. The real details come when he gets his MRI done, which is scheduled for tonight.

“And yeah, I’ve been told that Butler’s flying out tonight. His team’s staying over tonight. They’ll fly back tomorrow, but to get Butler back to get the MRI to just make sure he’s not sleeping on it and then take a flight. He’s probably flying out right now and we’ll get the MRI in Bay Area tomorrow,” said the Warriors insider.

As for Butler, there’s time for his situation to be cleared. But who will his replacement be? Ideally, Jonathan Kuminga. But we know his story all too well at this point. Kerr admitted himself that him and Butler can’t mix. And even without Butler in the squad, insiders say that the 22-year-old shouldn’t hold out any hope.

Jimmy Butler’s absence doesn’t change Jonathan Kuminga’s status

In his regular 95.7 The Game appearance, Kerr openly talked about the 0 possibility of putting Kuminga and Butler in the same lineup. “And to be very frank, the Jimmy / JK (Kuminga) combination has not been great and that’s the tricky part here.” This really does put a dent in his long-term future at the Golden State.

Once a lightning quick and energetic rookie, now faces a period of helplessness. The Brooklyn Nets do seem to be lurking- for which Kuminga will have to capitalise his chances in Butler’s absence.

“Yeah, this Kuminga thing is going to be interesting mostly because they just need somebody to get downhill. But some of them dudes look like they do not want to drive. They’re getting in a lane, pump faking, they’re not going up. And with the way the Rockets are overplaying, you simply have to attack the paint.”

You know there’s not many who attack the paint better than Big Jon. So if we speak of the obvious, we got a situation where Butler might not play, and where JK’s repertoire can be exploited. This is heaven sent. And the insiders thought so for sure. “So Kuminga, this feels like how he should get back into the rotation. This feels like his opportunity here. I don’t know any more tailor-made scenarios,” talked the insiders on Warriors Plus Minus.

So this is it. This is Jonathan Kuminga’s chance at redemption. Help the Warriors get into the semis in Butler’s absence, and you’ll get that long-term look in, right? No. The reporters seem to think that Kerr has pretty much made his mind up. “Even Kerr [was] asked today like,  if you don’t have Jimmy, is Kuminga the the guy who’s gonna get more minutes? ‘Oh, you know, we’ll have to think about it. We don’t know I mean, it’s not [on] top of [my] mind’.”

Well, that puts that debate to rest. Jonathan Kuminga’s Warriors future is written on the wall, as much as the Dub Nation or Jon himself would repent it. Their future is with Jimmy Butler leading the attacking force. While Kuminga might get his time to shine now, Butler’s MRI scan will reveal the whole story when the time comes.