Without Jimmy Butler on Saturday night, the Warriors had to rely on their defense to beat the Houston Rockets, and that’s exactly what happened at Chase Center.

The Warriors summoned a collective Herculean effort to pull out a gritty 104-93 win over the No. 2-seeded Rockets to take a two-games-to-one series lead.

And while Steph Curry went thermonuclear to the tune of 36 points, Gary Payton II knows exactly how the Warriors won the contentious game.

“We got stops,” Payton told NBC Sports Bay Area’s Kerith Burke on “Warriors Postgame Live” moments after the final buzzer. “Talked about getting stops and converting them, take care of the ball. When we take care of the ball, it’s very hard to stop us. So that’s what we did. We got stops and converted.”

Butler was ruled out roughly an hour before tip-off due to a pelvic contusion sustained in Game 2, but the Warriors didn’t throw in the towel. They fought and scrapped their way to a win that most observers didn’t think they could earn with the six-time NBA All-Star in street clothes.

For Payton and the Warriors, they won the game for Butler.

“Protect Jimmy at all costs,” Payton told Burke. “Have Jimmy’s back. When he gets back, you know, be ahead. So, tonight we did that, had his back, everybody stepped up and made huge plays down the stretch and now hopefully we get him back for Game 4.”

Butler has roughly 48 more hours to rest up and get ready to possibly play Monday night. But if he doesn’t suit up, Curry will be ready to carry the load.

“We get him open, we get him looks and you know most of the time, he’s going to knock them down,” Payton said of Curry to Burke. “So we can continue to get him looks, crazy things happen.”

The Warriors are two wins away from advancing to the Western Conference semifinals, and they stole home-court advantage away from the Rockets.

If Butler returns Monday and Curry goes off again, the Warriors could make quick work of the feisty Rockets.

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