Jimmy Butler plays through injury as Warriors win heated Game 4 - ESPN

SAN FRANCISCO — With Jimmy Butler's tailbone still hurting at the end, he came through in remarkable fashion and in every which way despite all the pain.

The Golden State Warriors star returned from a one-game absence and rejoined the starting lineup Monday night for a 109-106 Game 4 victory in their first-round series against the Houston Rockets, limping at times as he led his team one win away from advancing to the Western Conference semifinals.

«More than anything, I just wanted to play. This is the best time of the year for everybody; this is why you go through what you go through,» Butler said. «So to be able to miss a game, I don't like it. But I'm back. I'm back in a big way.»

Butler converted three free throws with 58.7 seconds left in the contest, grabbed the game-clinching rebound with four seconds to go and made two more free throws as part of a 27-point night — all while playing 40 minutes less than a week after he sustained a pelvic contusion in a frightening fall early in Wednesday's Game 2.

«Tonight was great. He played through the injury. It was beautiful,» Golden State's Draymond Green said. «But it's just his presence. What his presence does for this team is humongous. The first three quarters, he couldn't move. Not sure how he started moving in the fourth quarter, but first three quarters he couldn't move. Yet he never complained. He stuck with it.»

Butler participated in the shootaround earlier in the day and just needed to have a successful warmup to be deemed good to go.

«I thought it was winning time,» Butler said of his play down the stretch, thrilled he began to «move a little bit better.»

Butler played just more than five minutes during his initial stretch and nearly 18 minutes by halftime in a