Things looked bad for the Warriors when Stephen Curry injured his left hamstring tonight. He walked off in the second quarter and was later ruled out for the remainder of Game 1. But even without Steph, the Dubs ended up winning this one. Following the game, though, Jimmy Butler made a worrying admission about playing without the ‘Baby-Faced Assassin’ after wrapping the win on the road against Minnesota.

Jimmy himself did well in staying on course and leading the Warriors to a win without Steph. He put up a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds in the 41 minutes he played tonight, ending the game just 2 assists shy of a triple-double. But after the game, he revealed that he didn’t really enjoy playing the game tonight without the world’s best shooter by his side.

“We want Steph back. I’ll tell you that. It’s hard playing without that man. But we got one on the road. Came here, did what we had to do,” said Butler about tonight’s win. “Steph is our best player, and the game is much easier when we got him,” Jimmy added when asked what he took away from Game 1 tonight.

After all, Curry adds a threat to the Dubs that most teams really have no answer for other than hounding him with multiple players. And that ends up making life much easier for his teammates since they can just receive an easy pass from Steph and have open looks at the basket. And this is directly reflected in the Dubs’ statline. In the 12 games they played without Steph in the regular season, the Dubs averaged 106.9 points as opposed to the 113 points they averaged with him. And they also make fewer threes, get fewer dimes and boards during games without Steph on the floor.

All in all, the Warriors are just a better team with Steph in it. Although, as things stand, the Dubs will have to make do without the Baby-Faced Assassin for a while. But for how long could Steph be out? Well, we have a rough idea now thanks to a doctor on X.

How long will Jimmy Butler remain without Steph Curry?

From his comments above, one thing is clear — Jimmy Butler wants Steph back ASAP. But how long does it take for players to recover from hamstring strains? Well, Dr. Nirav Pandya shed some light on this after the injury to Steph.

Dr. Pandya revealed that a player’s recovery from this injury depends on several factors. The grade, location,  location and number of hamstring muscles involved, and even how swollen it is, will all factor into Steph’s return. But here’s the kicker — Dr.Pandya also brought up a study on these injuries in NBA players over a 5-year period.

This study showed that players missed 6 games on average when recovering from hamstring strains. Then again, we don’t know the exact details of Steph’s injury. But Steve Kerr revealed after the game that Steph would receive an MRI tomorrow. And we’ll find out more after it.

But Kerr did confess that he’s planning for Game 2, assuming that Steph will not be available. So till then, Jimmy Butler will need to make do without who he calls the best player on the Dubs. But if anyone can get it done for them without Curry, it’s Playoff Jimmy.