Takeaways from Warriors' Win Over Heat: Butler Injury Could Change Everything

After Jimmy Butler left the game with a knee injury, the Golden State Warriors (25-19) surprisingly pulled away from the Miami Heat (22-21), winning 135-112 on Monday at Chase Center.

Brandin Podziemski had a game-high 24 points. Stephen Curry added 19 points and 11 assists.

The Warriors made 24 threes, their fourth consecutive game with at least 20 threes.

Here are three takeaways from Golden State's win.

Butler Injury Could Change Everything

If Butler suffered a season-ending injury, everything changes for this Warriors team.

There would be no reason to give up any draft capital for a significant upgrade. They'll have no chance to compete for a championship without him.

Some will speculate that they will try to get Jonathan Kuminga back into the rotation. I believe that ship has sailed, but what they are targeting for him in a trade would change dramatically. Trades that bring back even young, raw players with high potential—like Kuminga himself—make much more sense now.

I doubt the Warriors become sellers at the deadline. As long as Stephen Curry is on the team, it makes no sense to tank. But if the Warriors decided to sell, De'Anthony Melton would be coveted.

I know I'm getting ahead of myself. We'll see what the MRI says about Butler's injury. But assuming it is as bad as it looked, it's a season-killing injury.

Podz, Moody Look Like They've Turned a Corner

The irony of the Butler injury is this team was finally playing to its potential, and a big reason for that was Brandin Podziemski and Moses Moody.

Podz was brilliant, scoring 24 points in a variety of ways. He made deep threes as well as driving finishes in traffic.

Moody had 13 with three threes, but what stood out was his defense. He had three steals and was disruptive on that end the whole game.

Buddy, Get Ready for Rotation Minutes

Buddy Hield had played under 20 minutes in 10 of his last 11 games. He was essentially out of the rotation.

Now, he has his bench-scoring role back.

Hield had 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting in 23 minutes Monday.

The Warriors surely know that Hield's defense often hurts the team more than his offense lifts it. Entering Monday, the Warriors were 10.3 points per 100 possessions worse on defense with Hield on the floor, per Cleaning the Glass.

But Steve Kerr has to live with the defensive lapses in search of what Hield did against the Heat.