As the Golden State Warriors defeated the New Orleans Pelicans 111-95 on Friday night, the team awoke from an untimely slumber and put together a passable performance against another lowly team to maintain their place in the playoff race.
Much like their past two games, this one was not pretty on either end of the floor. The Warriors were coming off back-to-back losses to the Atlanta Hawks and the Miami Heat to begin their six-game road-trip, having allowed a combined 236 points while failing to gel offensively in both games.
While Stephen Curry was absent with a hip contusion during these games, and his return against the Pelicans probably made the difference in a gruelling win, Golden State still experienced many of the same struggles that limited them through their recent rough stretch.
The Warriors shot a woeful 23.6% from 3-point range against the Pelicans, accompanied by a measly 41.3% on field goals for the game. Yet, Jimmy Butler's uptick in 3-point attempts, and his resulting low percentage, might be the most concerning trend from this recent stretch.
Jimmy Butler's three-point attempts are not a good sign for the Warriors
Throughout his career, Butler has never been known as a sharpshooter, taking a relatively low volume of 3-point attempts and thriving within the paint and the mid-range during his most effective years.
In over five years with the Miami Heat, Butler averaged only two 3-point attempts a game while shooting 30.6% from beyond the arc in that span. Since joining Golden State at the trade deadline, Butler's 3-point shooting has been perhaps his only drawback as he has completely transformed the team on both ends of the floor.
In 20 games with the Warriors, Butler has attempted only 2.3 shots from beyond the arc per game, and has only made an abysmal 21.7% of these. Yet in his past three games, the veteran forward has attempted 15 3-pointers, while still only making two of them.
While Golden State have three-point shooters like Curry, Quinten Post and the streaky Buddy Hield, Butler taking this onus onto himself, with such poor initial results, is an increasingly bad sign for the team.
Throughout his career, Butler ramps up his offensive production and consequently his risk-taking in the playoffs. In his two NBA Finals runs with the Heat, Butler averaged 3.8 and 3.5 3-point attempts per game respectively, having shot a more respectable 34.7% across his playoff career.
While 3-point shots are not a major component of Butler's offensive game normally, the heightened workload he takes on in the playoffs demands at least a competency in that department -- something that Butler has not yet shown with the Warriors.
While three games is a small sample size, Golden State desperately needs Butler to reach his playoff form sooner rather than later in order to claim a playoff spot in a packed Western Conference race.