HOUSTON — The Warriors’ first-round series against the Rockets hinges on Jimmy Butler’s injured pelvis.
San Francisco, CA
What Jimmy Butler's injury means for the Warriors
Butler flew home to San Francisco ahead of the team to get an MRI after a pelvic contusion knocked him out of Game 2, a league source told The San Francisco Standard. Without him, a shell-shocked, roughed-up Warriors team lost 109-94 in a hostile Toyota Center.
Losing Butler would put a sour note on an otherwise successful trip, as Golden State stole home court advantage for the series by winning Game 1. The 14th-year NBA veteran has until 5:30 p.m. on Saturday to recover in time for the start of Game 3.
“If Jimmy’s out, we have to rethink everything,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “Rotations, who starts, the best combinations.”
Butler’s injury occurred with 2:28 left in the first quarter. The Warriors had expected the Rockets to rough up Game 2 even more than they did in the series opener, and they’d already been proven right. Houston mauled Steph Curry off the ball, crashed the glass like maniacs, hand-checked ball-handlers and poked jabs in between plays.
Even though Curry and Draymond Green both said postgame that Houston was more physical in Game 1, there were three technicals and a flagrant foul handed out by officials on Wednesday.
Butler’s injury, though, wasn’t part of Houston’s concerted effort to play more physically. It came on a freak play in which wing Amen Thompson stumbled going for an offensive rebound under the basket. His lower half got tangled up between Green and Steven Adams before he undercut Butler, who was airborne in an attempt to haul in the board.
“This is the playoffs,” Kerr said. “This is an incredibly physical sport. Stuff happens. People get injured. It’s all part of it. There’s no time to lament anything. You feel bad for your player, but you have to go on to what’s next.
“Hopefully, Jimmy will be able to play. But if not, we’ve got to (put together a plan).”
Butler writhed on the court in pain, slow to get up. He gingerly limped to the free throw line to shoot foul shots before checking himself out shortly thereafter. He made his way to the locker room with his trainer and Warriors director of sports medicine and performance Rick Celebrini.
The initial impression, per a source, is that Butler’s injury isn’t too serious, but the team will know more about the severity on Thursday after he gets an MRI.
After the game, Butler told coaches and teammates that he’ll be fine. But that’s what he always says.
Both Curry and Jonathan Kuminga recently suffered pelvic injuries. Curry missed two games and Kuminga missed one. Generally, as long as a player doesn’t suffer a fracture, the injury becomes a pain management issue after swelling subsides.
Butler had a similar fall in the first round of the Heat’s 2023 playoff series against the Bucks. He didn’t miss a game and finished the series by scoring 56 and 42 points to eliminate Milwaukee.
While the training staff tended to Butler, Brandin Podziemski joined him in the locker room. The second-year guard toughed out a stomach bug he’d been dealing with all day, but missed the middle chunk of Game 2. Podziemski got an IV at halftime and returned halfway through the third quarter.
Without Butler and Podziemski, the Warriors dusted off both Pat Spencer and Kuminga, the latter of whom hadn’t played in Golden State’s previous three games.
Kuminga scored 11 points in 26 minutes, including five points toward the end of the game with Houston up big. Spencer also chipped in 11 points in 12 minutes.
Butler turned the Warriors’ season around when Golden State acquired him. Including the postseason, the Warriors entered Wednesday’s game with a 25-7 record with him in the lineup. Without him, they’re a pedestrian team.
After he left Game 2, the Warriors trailed by double digits the rest of the way.
With Butler on the court, the Warriors have blended his isolation style and ability to draw fouls with their free-flowing motion. If he’s sidelined, they’ll have to make sweeping strategic changes.
“We’ll have to figure that out,” Green said. “It’s no easy task in replacing Jimmy. Obviously, we all know what he’s meant to this team since he’s been here. We’ve kind of tailored our offense a bit around him.”
The Warriors acquired Butler to make a true playoff run, and he instantly vindicated the decision. He logged 25 points, seven rebounds, six assists and five steals in the Game 1 win.
Butler is known as a tough player who plays through injuries. But one of the reasons the Butler era soured in Miami was because of his unavailability in the playoffs; he missed last year’s postseason due to a knee sprain.
The Warriors are cautiously optimistic they won’t have to face that same reality.
“If for whatever reason he’s not out there, I’ll carry a lot of the lift and the load on trying to create shots and create advantages,” Curry said. “We’ll have different rotations out there. (There’s) a couple plays that we call for him specifically, but the rest of it is trying to make the simple play.”
The San Francisco Standard’s Tim Kawakami contributed reporting.
San Francisco, CA
What have San Francisco police been doing at 16th and Mission?
It’s been nearly 300 days since Mayor Daniel Lurie announced a plan to clean up the 16th Street BART Plaza.
To mark the occasion, Mission Local is adding a new tool for tracking his promises: A dashboard, updated daily, that notes the arrests and citations issued by San Francisco police officers in a 300-meter radius around 16th and Mission streets.
Our dashboard uses daily incident reports filed by officers to track the enforcement of common violations, including drug-related offenses or disorderly conduct.
The San Francisco Police Department releases incident reports with a 24-hour lag. Our dashboard updates daily at noon to include the most current data: Arrests and citations issued the day before.
While the number of incident reports may form the basis of official crime statistics, it would be wrong to think of them as the “official” count, according to the SFPD. There are groups doing outreach work in the plazas, like Ahsing Solutions, that do not regularly release public data quantifying their activities, for example.
What this police data does show, over time, is where the police department is focusing resources and attention.
For example, reports show that in March 2025, after Lurie stated his intention to crack down around 16th and Mission streets, there was a massive spike in arrests and citations. This does not necessarily mean drug-related crimes increased in the vicinity, but simply that, spurred by the mayor’s statement, police officers began enforcing more proactively.
Use our interactive graphics to explore the number and reasons for arrests and citations issued, and keep tabs on trends in SFPD’s enforcement around the 16th Street BART plaza.
You can read our ongoing coverage of the crackdown on 16th Street plaza here.
Arrests and citations issued in last 6 months around 16th and Mission
You can access our archive, with arrests and citations data from 2018, here.
The calendar below shows a snapshot of the arrests and citations issued around a 300-meter radius of the 16th Street BART Plaza for the last six months.
The darker the date, the more arrests and citations took place that day.
The department continuously updates the status of incident reports as they are investigated, and it is possible that the official statistics reported by SFPD to the California Department of Justice may differ from our numbers.
The data below should be considered the most accurate moment-in-time representation of arrests and citations on the day they were filed. Hover over each date to see the reasons for each arrest or citation.
Drug incidents around 16th and Mission
Arrests and citations issued for drug-related offenses skyrocketed earlier this year, after Mayor Lurie made the plaza one of his targets to show how the city can make a difference.
Explore the number of drug-related arrests and citations issued by SFPD around 16th and Mission each month since 2018.
Data for the most recent month will always be incomplete (and consequently lower) because it includes only arrests and citations through yesterday, while previous months reflect full monthly totals.
Drug incidents at 16th and Mission vs. citywide
In most years, the area around 16th and Mission accounts for a majority of the Mission’s drug-related police enforcement.
In the spring of 2025, this area, which accounts for a mere 0.2 percent of the city’s geographical landmass, was responsible for nearly 27 percent of San Francisco’s drug incident reports that resulted in an arrest or citation.
During the pandemic, drug-related arrests and citations dropped to an all-time-low around 16th and Mission but it has recently surpassed pre-pandemic levels.
Most common incidents around 16th and Mission
The table below shows the top 15 offense categories at 16th and Mission, ranked by total number of arrests and citations, over the past 12 months. The sparkline — the small line chart — shows how each category has changed month to month, and the percentage compares the current year to the year before.
We use a rolling 12-month window (365 days from yesterday’s date), rather than a calendar year, so the data stays current. Because the dashboard updates daily, the most recent month will always be incomplete, but using a full year of data minimizes the impact of any one partial month on the overall totals.
San Francisco, CA
15 injured after San Francisco cable car comes to screeching halt
More than a dozen people were injured when a cable car in San Francisco came to a screeching halt on Monday afternoon, rattling passengers inside, according to authorities.
A total of 15 people suffered minor to moderate injuries after the cable car abruptly stopped without warning and tossed around those onboard, the San Francisco Fire Department said on social media.
Two people were taken to the hospital with moderate injuries, 11 others were hospitalized with “minor aches and pains,” and two people refused assistance at the scene, authorities said.
Fire officials told ABC7 that an object might have been thrown at the cable car, causing the abrupt stop. Authorities have not officially released information on what led up to the incident.
Some of the cable car’s windows were completely shattered, according to photos of the aftermath. Video posted by fire officials also captured several ambulances crowded around the stopped cable car.
“Safety for our passengers on all Muni vehicles continues to be our top priority. We’ll be conducting a full review of incident details to ensure continued safety on the cable cars,” SFMTA said in a statement.
Cable cars first began running in San Francisco in the 1870s, and became designated as a National Historic Landmark in the 1960s.
Passengers on the famed tourist attractions do not wear seat belts and often hang off the cars, which are partially open-air.
The SFFD and the SFMTA will investigate the incident.
With Post wires
San Francisco, CA
This Week: E-Bikes, Happy Hour, Holiday Lights – Streetsblog San Francisco
Here is a list of events this week.
- Monday/tonight! Introduction to E-Bikes. This is a San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, SFMTA/SFCTA-sponsored virtual class. Monday/tonight, December 15, 6-7 p.m. Register for Zoom link.
- Tuesday Bike It Forward Community Repair Night. Join the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition as they rehabilitate donated and abandoned bicycles and get them to folks who need them. Tuesday, December 16, 5-7 p.m. San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, 1720 Market Street, S.F.
- Wednesday Car-Free Happy Hour. This event is open to everyone, whether they’re car free, car light, car-free curious, or they just want to hang out with fellow urbanists. Wednesday, December 17, 5:30-7 p.m. Cornerstone Berkeley, 2367 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley.
- Thursday Vision Zero Committee Meeting. This committee supports the work of improving street safety in San Francisco. Thursday, December 18, 1 p.m. Union Square Conference Room, Floor 7, SFMTA Headquarters, 1 South Van Ness Avenue, S.F.
- Thursday Transform Happy Hour with the New Executive Director. Come meet Transform’s new leadership, mingle with like-minded folks, and give your input for Transform’s next chapter. Thursday, December 18, 5:30-8 p.m. Line 51 Brewing Company, 303 Castro Street, Oakland.
- Friday Alameda Holiday Lights Ride and Christmas Caroling. Ride to see the holiday lights in Alameda. Friday, December 19, 6:30 p.m. meet, 7 p.m. roll out. Finishes at 10 p.m. MacArthur BART, 555 40th Street, Oakland.
Got an event we should know about? Drop us a line.
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