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.

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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)

Iran fired missiles and drones at targets across the Gulf including oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and a ship off the coast of the Emirates, while Israeli and the United States struck targets across the Islamic Republic. Saudi Arabia and other states said they intercepted multiple drone attacks.

Six members of the Iranian women’s soccer team will remain in Australia, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Wednesday, while one of the squad members who was previously granted asylum changed her mind and planned to return to Iran.

U.S. President Donald Trump said in social media posts there were no reports of Iran planting explosives in the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil is shipped. The U.S. said it took out more than a dozen minelaying Iranian vessels Tuesday to help prevent any attempt to close the waterway.

Iran's vow not to allow any oil through the strategic strait has led to market volatility and fears of shortages, especially in Asia, which is dependent on oil shipped from the region.

Israel struck a building in the center of the Lebanese capital Beirut as part of its campaign against Hezbollah. The Lebanese group has been carrying out attacks against Israel in support of Iran.

Here is the latest:

Some tankers, believed linked to Iran, are continuing to get through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf.

Some of the ships getting through are so-called “dark” transits, meaning they aren’t turning on their Automatic Identification System tracks, which show where vessels are.

Vessels carrying sanctioned Iranian crude often turn off their AIS trackers.

The security firm Neptune P2P Group said Wednesday that seven ships had passed through the strait since March 8. Of those, five were linked to Iranian-associated shipping, it said.

The commodity-tracking firm Kpler said Iran has restarted crude exports through its Jask oil terminal on the Gulf of Oman.

A tanker loaded roughly 2 million barrels at Jask on March 7, the firm said.

A projectile hit a cargo ship Wednesday in the Strait of Hormuz, setting the vessel ablaze after the United States targeted Iranian minelaying vessels that could target the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, run by the British military, said the vessel had been hit just north of Oman in the strait.

It said the crew was evacuating the ship.

Iran did not immediately claim the attack though it has been targeting ships in and around the strait, disrupting a waterway that sees a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded pass through it.

The UKMTO earlier reported on another attack targeting a vessel off Ras al-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates.

Qatar issued a warning to the public Wednesday morning of a possible Iranian attack.

An Associated Press journalist in Qatar heard explosions as air defenses intercepted incoming fire over Doha, the country’s capital.

Qatar says it won’t serve as a mediator for Iran as it remains under attack from Tehran.

Mohammed bin Abdulaziz al-Khulaifi, Qatar’s minister of state for foreign affairs, made the statement to the Qatari-funded satellite news network Al Jazeera in an interview aired Wednesday.

He noted both Qatar and Oman had been attacked even though they worked to “build bridges between Iran and the West.”

“We will not be able to fulfill that role under attack, and that’s something the Iranians need to understand,” al-Khulaifi said. "The regional countries are not an enemy of Iran, and the Iranians are not understanding that idea.”

Russia said its consulate in the Iranian city of Isfahan was damaged in airstrikes targeting the central Iranian city.

The state-run Tass news agency quoted Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova saying there were “no casualties or serious injuries” in the strike Sunday, which targeted the nearby governor’s office in the city.

“Windows were shattered in the office building and residential apartments, and several employees were thrown back by the blast wave. Fortunately, there were no casualties or serious injuries,” Zakharova said.

Videos circulating online and broadcast by local news channels from an apparent strike site in the densely populated Aicha Bakkar area of central Beirut show two floors of a multistory building engulfed in flames.

The strike came without warning. There were no immediate reports concerning who was targeted or the number and extent of casualties.

The structure that was hit is several buildings away from Dar al-Fatwa, the country’s highest Sunni Muslim religious authority.

The strike was in an area far from Beirut’s southern suburbs, where the Israeli military had issued evacuation warnings earlier in the renewed conflict with Hezbollah.

Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry said early Wednesday it destroyed five drones heading toward the kingdom’s vast Shaybah oil field in the Empty Quarter desert. It added that it intercepted and destroyed two drones in the Eastern Province.

Kuwait said it downed eight drones over the tiny, oil-rich nation.

Two more members of the Iranian women’s soccer team were granted asylum in Australia before their teammates departed the country, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Wednesday, but one of the women changed her mind and plant to return to Iran.

Six women from the Iranian squad will remain in Australia on humanitarian visas after accepting offers of asylum shortly before their scheduled return home, Burke said. The names and photographs of the team members initially granted asylum have been widely published, including by Burke, and it was not immediately clear which of the women reversed her decision.

The rest of the team’s departure from Sydney, Australia, happened late Tuesday during fraught and outraged protests at the delegation’s hotel and the airport. Iranian Australians sought to prevent the women from leaving the country, citing fears for their safety in Iran.

A projectile hit a container ship early Wednesday morning off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in the Strait of Hormuz, the British military said.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center issued the warning, saying the attack happened off Ras al-Khaimah, the UAE’s northernmost emirate on the strait.

The center said the “extent of the damage is currently unknown but under investigation by the crew.”

Ships have effectively halted movement through the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded passes.

A boy runs inside cement pipe turned into a bomb shelter as air raid sirens warn of incoming Iranian missile strike in Michmoret, Israel, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

A man passes in front of a destroyed building that housed a branch of Al-Qard Al-Hassan, a non-bank financial institution run by Hezbollah, which was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Protesters wave Iranian flags and hold a portrait of the late Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his son Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei to support his selection as the new Iran's Supreme Leader in Baghdad, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

A displaced woman holds a child as another stands beside her between rows of tents at the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium, which has been turned into a shelter for people displaced by Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon and Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Smoke rise from an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)