Warriors guard Jimmy Butler tears ACL in his right knee and will miss remainder of season

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Golden State Warriors star Jimmy Butler will require surgery and miss the remainder of the season after tearing the ACL in his right knee during the third quarter of a 135-112 victory over his former Miami team.

The Warriors made the announcement Tuesday ahead of their home game against Toronto.

Butler was hurt Monday night moments after catching a pass in the paint when he went down hard and awkwardly following a collision with the Heat's Davion Mitchell — who was called for a foul. After the play, Butler was asking for two free throws, a positive sign to coach Steve Kerr that his spirits were good.

“We're all really concerned, but we'll know more after the MRI,” Kerr said, well before the results were known. “Everybody is subdued because of the injury, waiting to hear the news.”

The news was not good, and now Golden State — with about two weeks until the trade deadline — will have decisions to make about how to handle the remainder of the season without Butler.

Butler's knee buckled upon his landing and he grimaced and grabbed at the knee while down for a couple of minutes. He needed teammates Gary Payton II and Buddy Hield to escort him off the court and to the locker room after the fall on the Warriors' offensive end. When he finally got up with assistance, he was unable to put any pressure on his knee.

“It's something you hadn't seen before, usually you expect him get up and even if he can't finish the game just get off the sideline. I just told him to take his time and figure out what he needed in that moment,” Stephen Curry said. “It's kind of funny he was still cracking jokes over there while he was on the ground in true Jimmy fashion. He's always going to have a good time no matter the situation is. I do love that perspective and that part of his personality, even in the worst of moment he's still having a good time. He was trying to get to the free-throw line, he said it was two shots.”

In just under 21 minutes, Butler had 17 points on 6-for-11 shooting, four assists and three rebounds. He is Golden State's second-leading scorer behind Curry, having averaged 20.1 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.9 assists entering the week.

“He's an alpha. He's one of those guys in the league who everybody else in the gym knows that's the guy,” Kerr said. “He has that presence but he also has that game where we can play through him possession after possession. So, assuming we'll be without him for a little bit, we're going to miss him, we've got a lot of players who can play and we're showing our depth right now.”

AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds in Miami contributed to this report.

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, left, checks on forward Jimmy Butler III during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Miami Heat in San Francisco, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Golden State Warriors forward Jimmy Butler III, middle, is helped off the floor by teammates during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Miami Heat in San Francisco, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Golden State Warriors forward Jimmy Butler III, second from left, is helped off the floor by teammates during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Miami Heat in San Francisco, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Golden State Warriors forward Jimmy Butler III, left, reacts after contact with Miami Heat guard Davion Mitchell (45) during the second half of an NBA basketball game in San Francisco, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Golden State Warriors forward Jimmy Butler III, middle, is helped up by teammates during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Miami Heat in San Francisco, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. applications for unemployment benefits inched down modestly last week as layoffs remain at historically healthy levels despite a weakening job market.

The number of Americans filing for jobless aid for the week ending March 7 fell by 1,000 to 213,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet forecast 215,000 new benefit applications.

Filings for unemployment benefits are viewed as a proxy for U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.

While weekly layoffs have remained in a historically low range mostly between 200,000 and 250,000 for the past few years, a number of high-profile companies have announced job cuts recently, including Morgan Stanley,Block, UPSand Amazon in recent weeks.

Last week, the Labor Department reported that U.S. employers unexpectedly cut 92,000 jobs in February, a sign that the labor market remains under strain. Economists had expected 60,000 new jobs in February.

Revisions also slashed 69,000 jobs from December and January payrolls, nudging the unemployment rate up to 4.4%.

The Labor Department also recently reported that job openings fell in December to the lowest level in more than five years. Its January report comes next week.

For now, the U.S. job market appears stuck in what economists call a “low-hire, low-fire” state that has kept the unemployment rate historically low, but has left those out of work struggling to find a new job.

Data over the past year has broadly revealed a labor market in which hiring has clearly slowed, hobbled by uncertainty stoked by President Donald Trump’s tariffs and the lingering effects of the high interest rates the Federal Reserve engineered in 2022 and 2023 to tamp down a spike of pandemic-induced inflation.

Adding to the uncertainty is the war in Iran, which has sent oil prices 25% higher in less than two weeks.

This comes at a time when inflation was already relatively high in the U.S. A report released Wednesday showed that U.S. consumers paid prices for groceries, gasoline and other costs of living that were 2.4% higher in February than a year earlier.

That inflation rate was the same as the prior month’s and better than the 2.5% that economists expected, but it remains above the 2% target the Federal Reserve has set for the economy. It also doesn’t include the spike in gasoline prices that’s happened this month because of the war.

The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, personal consumption expenditures or PCE, comes out Friday, just days before the Fed meets to decide on interest rates.

The Labor Department’s report Thursday showed that the four-week moving average of jobless claims, which tempers some of the week-to-week volatility, dropped by 4,000 to 212,000.

The total number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits for the previous week ending Feb. 28 declined by 21,000 to 1.85 million, the government said.

FILE - Construction workers install a lumber roof at a new home build Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Laveen, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)