How Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green are managing the ‘dog days’ slog of Warriors season

SAN FRANCISCO– “The dog days are amongst us,” Jimmy Butler declared while shaking his head, after the Golden State Warriors’ 119-97 win over the Portland Trail Blazers.

Like a groundhog spotting its shadow in the dead of winter, Butler’s declaration is an indication that, while the 22-19 Dubs are fighting on the court to stay afloat in the Western Conference, they’re also fighting the mental malaise that comes with this particular stretch of the season.

“It’s always a blessing to play basketball in the best league in the world,” Butler explained. “I don’t forget that. But anywhere from after Christmas to around January, all the way up to the All-Star break, it gets really repetitive.”

It’s No Man’s Land. That point in the season when fatigue is in full effect, and the oasis of All-Star break is just out of reach. It’s a reality Draymond Green is all too familiar with.

“Early on in your career, you don’t really know,” Green said. “You just know it’s a little harder at the time, and you want to go to the gym a little bit less that day, the walls start to close in on you a little bit more.”

Green recounted how he explained to his teammates why he left the locker room and arena so quickly after the loss to the Atlanta Hawks.

“I was a little beat up after that [Clippers] game, so that was a few days process of actually hammering away at different things,” Green said. “Even on the off days, I was here for a couple of hours. Then after the game, I sprinted it out, because it just felt like I was in the casino or jail or something, like the walls were closing in on me. You feel it.”

How the Warriors are combating the slog of the dog days

With Golden State teetering at the edge of the playoff race in the eighth seed, just three games back from the coveted sixth seed, they don’t have the luxury of succumbing to the lethargy of the dog days. At 22-19, the Warriors have been straight up “mediocre” in the words of Butler. And while they’ve won nine of their last 12 games, they still have a lot of work to do to get where they want to be.

“We need to win more games, lose less games,” Butler joked when asked what needs to change to get out of their mediocrity. “The worst place to be is to be mediocre because, like— yes, it can go either way. But nobody wants to be just average.”

The Warriors are highly aware of where they stand. They know they aren’t in the upper echelon of the West; they’ve been vocal about how their mediocre record speaks for itself. But they also know they’re better than what they’ve shown. The ceiling of their capabilities rests in the 23-9 sprint to the finish line last season, after the Butler trade. The so-called proof in the pudding they’ve been chasing all season.

But reaching that ceiling means winning the dog days– especially given they have the advantage of working through those days in an eight-game homestand.

For Steve Kerr, that means leaning on their depth, which has been potent as of late. In their last 12 games, the Warriors’ 48.2 points-off-the-bench average ranks first in the league, with De’Anthony Melton, Brandin Podziemski, and Al Horford having found their stride.

But for Butler and Green, getting through the dog days is straightforward.

“You gotta just put your head down,” Butler said. “Get through it, compete, try to win as many games as you can.”

Jimmy Butler on managing the dog days of the season as the Warriors trudge through this stretch of the year:

“You gotta just put your head down, get through it, compete, try to win as many games as you can. But the dog days are amongst us.” pic.twitter.com/rr237WG5lS

— Kenzo Fukuda (@kenzofuku) January 14, 2026

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