SAN FRANCISCO — Through 19 minutes of another slugfest, the Golden State Warriors, drowning on offense without Jimmy Butler, only had 27 points. In the four-plus minutes of the first half when Steph Curry rested, they scored zero points. They were down 12 to the Houston Rockets with less than five minutes left in the second quarter of Game 3. Their grip on the series was fading.
That’s when Buddy Hield jab-stepped Jabari Smith Jr. out of his vicinity, took a dribble to his left and rose for a 27-footer. Three minutes later, after a Curry miss, Hield received a kickout from Quinten Post and drained a 3 from the wing with Fred VanVleet barreling down on him. A minute later, Hield recognized an impending Curry steal before VanVleet and zoomed ahead of him in transition for a layup.
Hield’s eight-point individual surge was part of the Warriors’ Game 3 resurgence. They went from being down 12 to down three at halftime — an ocean of a difference — breathing a level of belief and offensive confidence back into a team that was losing it.
Hield was a major reason for it, finishing with 17 points in his most important performance of his first season with the Warriors. Hield was a plus-14 in his 29 minutes. The Warriors beat the Rockets 104-93 without Butler and are now up 2-1 in the series.
“I knew Robin was out, so I had to step up,” Hield said, referring to Butler’s continued push of Curry as Batman and himself as Robin. “I had to be Alfred.”
“Thanks Batman and team,” Butler joked on Instagram postgame. “Excluding Buddy.”
Steph Curry on the Jimmy Butler IG post: “Elite”
Is he embracing the Batman moniker Butler is pushing?
“You can call it whatever you want to call it. I know I need to play at a high level to win.” pic.twitter.com/R3uyOSPjC5
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) April 27, 2025
I asked Draymond Green postgame if Hield is the funniest teammate he’s ever had. Green said he’s top four, right next to Brandon Rush, Nick Young and Klay Thompson. “Unintentionally,” Green said. Kevon Looney said Green, Andre Iguodala and Leandro Barbosa also would be in the mix.
Curry kept the club more exclusive.
“Top two,” Curry ranked Hield. “Nate Robinson and him.”
Hield can be blooper-prone and an Internet punching bag. His teammates love to roast him. Kerr was caught in a mic’d-up segment recently introducing Hield to Curry on the sideline after he looked off Curry for his own shot. Butler told the world after Game 2 how much he hates Hield dribbling. Hield then got his dribble ripped by Steven Adams 40 feet from the hoop in Game 3.
That generates an outside perception that belies the true appreciation Hield has inside the locker room as both a valued player and a refreshing personality.
“He literally is one of the best 3-point shooters in the history of the league,” Kerr said. “He was hugely important for us this year, 82 games. He’s there for us every night. Shots don’t always go in, but he’s never shy, and defenses respect him.”
This series is a great example. The physical Rockets cross-match against specific Warriors’ lineups that can make it harder for them to attack and score. Ime Udoka has been putting the vulnerable Alperen Şengün on Moses Moody to keep him out of the Curry action. But Houston can’t put Şengün on Hield because he’s a more dangerous and proven movement shooter, essentially playing the role Thompson once did in a reduced manner.
“They are going to send a trap or double-team or blitz a pick-and-roll,” Curry said. “If I get off it, if we are spaced properly, Buddy is a guy that demands attention. You can’t leave him open, and if he has a little bit of daylight, he’s got to be able to take those and knock them down.”
Hield (7) and Steph Curry share a celebratory moment during Game 3 Saturday. (Photo: Jesse D. Garrabrant / NBAE via Getty Images)
Hield has made 2,127 regular-season 3s. It’s the ninth most among all active NBA players. He’s entered a different stage of his career, so he doesn’t play or shoot at the volume he once did, but he’s a durable bench shooter on the first season of a four-year, $37 million contract with flexible team opt-outs in the final two seasons. That’s positive value for a player who made 203 3s this season in 22.7 minutes per night.
“I don’t care what people say about me,” Hield said. “I know what I bring to this team, my value to the team and my charisma. This team has let me be myself. A lot of teams might say that’s a distraction, but this team has embraced it. I’ve heard guys say it helps us stay together. Some teams don’t really like that. They’re overly militant. They don’t let you be yourself. You need to be loose sometimes.”
“He’s huge in the locker room,” Green added. “He’s huge on the plane. Just for the aura of this team, he’s big.”
Both Kerr and Looney told their favorite Hield story from late in the regular season when he forced assistant coach Terry Stotts to join the pregame dance circle on the court in Portland and break it down in front of a crowd where he once was the head coach.
“And Terry did the dance!” Kerr laughed.
His constant back-and-forth insult-fest with Butler has made its way to the public in small snippets, typically during Butler media scrums. If they’re in the locker room together, they’re almost always firing away at each other.
Jimmy Butler told Draymond Green after his win-sealing block: “I can do that, too.”
Plus the nightly Buddy Hield and Butler back-and-forth
“Fake a*** triple-double”
“You don’t pass the ball enough to get a triple-double” pic.twitter.com/D3DoPSTYbS
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) March 21, 2025
There was a moment early in Butler’s tenure with the Warriors when they were in the visiting locker room in Sacramento after a win. That night, Andrew Wiggins made three free throws to send a Heat game in Toronto to overtime. A few players were watching the highlights, happy for their former teammate.
“They got a closer now, Jimmy!” Hield yelled as his nearby teammates laughed. “That’s why they traded for him, Jimmy!”
The quick interaction, rich with context, was a quick peek at Hield’s ability to loosen up the atmosphere of a high-stress environment. His willingness to roast Butler and also become the butt of many of Butler’s jokes eased much of the tension surrounding Butler’s in-season arrival.
It’s part of why the Warriors have been protective of Hield during various dust-ups with opponents this season. Hield often finds himself in the mix, like he did late in Game 3 when Jalen Green called him a derogatory name while the two were chirping. Draymond Green jumped to Hield’s defense in a way that had social media abuzz.
“The only thing people see is the game,” Draymond Green said. “But what you don’t see, we spend far more time together off the court than the amount of game time we have.”
This isn’t Hield’s first big playoff moment. Playing with the Philadelphia 76ers, he made six 3s and scored 20 points in a Game 6, first-round series win last year against the New York Knicks.
But Green was quick to remind him Saturday how few high-stakes NBA moments he’s had. This was only Hield’s seventh career playoff game. He just helped the Warriors win a massive Game 3 without their second-best player.
“I feel like this season went by so fast because of all the fun I’m having,” Hield said. “Just having fun, balling, seeing basketball from a different perspective. Championship mindset, how Steve and the organization go about their stuff. Players around here, nobody has ego. Big picture. I’ve been on teams where it’s a lot of egos, and you’re just fighting with that. Here it is … Steph Curry — and that settles that.”
(Top photo: Noah Graham / NBAE via Getty Images)
