Butler: 'I got my joy back' playing with Warriors

Jimmy Butler is feeling the love playing with the Golden State Warriors.

After Monday night's 109-106 Game 4 victory over the Houston Rockets, Butler shared his appreciation for his team as it inches closer to the next round.

"It means the world. I'd die for these guys, for real it's so fun," Butler said to TNT's Allie LaForce postgame. "I got my joy back as some would say. But more than anything, it's always good to win."

In his return after missing Game 3 with a pelvic contusion, Butler recorded 27 points, including 14 in the fourth quarter, along with six assists and five rebounds. The Warriors are now up 3-1 in the first-round playoff series.

"He played through the injury," Draymond Green said, according to ESPN's Ohm Youngmisuk. "(It) was beautiful. But 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 he never complained. He stuck with it.

"I think what was most important, when the time was right, everybody on our side looked to get him the ball. When you get him the ball, he made great things happen for himself or for others. It was huge. I think my favorite play was the last rebound. I looked up, I thought it was (Jonathan) Kuminga out there flying. It was Jimmy."

Since joining the Warriors in February, Butler has recorded at least 20 points in 14 games - compared with nine for the Miami Heat before the trade. The 35-year-old said he wanted to get his "joy" back playing basketball and didn't see that as a possibility with the Heat a month before the trade.

Miami went 11-21 after Butler's departure. The Heat were eliminated from the playoffs in a 55-point blowout loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers before the Rockets-Warriors contest.

Golden State can advance to the Western Conference semifinals with a victory Wednesday.