AS JIMMY BUTLER boarded his first team flight with the Golden State Warriors the day before his Feb. 8 debut against the Chicago Bulls, he had something in his carry-on that he rarely travels without — his dominoes.

It’s an integral part of some of his fondest memories with his late father, Jimmy Butler Jr., who died a year earlier. His father drove an 18-wheeler and spent long days on the road but still had time to introduce his son to the world of dominoes. He educated Butler on strategy, how to always pay attention to the surroundings and the opponents’ tells, and most important of all, how to become a winner.

“It’s funny because that’s how me and my dad would hustle people,” Butler told ESPN. “We would play against some grown folks and they’ll bet five dollars. … And my dad would be like, ‘All right, I’ll take my son.’ And everybody would be like, ‘Oh man, come on man! That’s no challenge! We gonna beat up on y’all.’ Sometimes we would lose, but majority of times we would win.”

Butler remembers how his father displayed the dominoes in the exact way they were during the previous defeat and explained his mistakes.

“His mind was so good with numbers and dominoes,” Butler said. “Like mine is now, which is definitely what I got from him.

“I’d be like, ‘How the f— would I remember what I did two hours ago [let alone two weeks ago]?’ And he was like, ‘If you’d been paying attention, this is what you should have done and then we can run the board and we can win.'”

Butler has transferred these same practices to the basketball court, watching everything from opponents’ frustrations with their coach or a referee to their limps and winces that he can use to his advantage.

“It’s from the person that made me Jimmy Butler III,” said the Warriors forward, who added the generational suffix to his name and jersey to honor his late father when he joined Golden State. “When I think about it, that’s how my dad taught me how to count.

“I started to learn the importance of winning, of dominating, of being the best. And I have surpassed him in that. Before he passed, I was better than he was.”

Butler’s opponent in dominoes on this flight was Draymond Green, who had been waiting for this match. In the month and a half since then, the two have 19 NBA games together under their belts and have formed a bond that has shaped them as teammates.

When the Warriors traded with the Miami Heat for Butler on Feb. 5 and subsequently signed him to a two-year, $111 million deal, they were taking a gamble that he would salvage a once-promising season that was sinking fast, and give Green and Stephen Curry a much-needed boost toward a playoff berth. The move has worked: The Warriors have gone 16-3 with Butler in the lineup, climbing to sixth place in the Western Conference and only two games out of securing home-court advantage in the first round of the postseason. The Heat, meanwhile, are 5-17 since the trade, and they just snapped a 10-game losing streak, their longest since since 2008.

As Butler returns to Miami on Tuesday after a tumultuous breakup, the six-time All-Star has not only injected life into the Warriors but has developed chemistry with Green that could determine how far the Warriors go this season.

“Two winners that would do anything to win,” Butler told ESPN of his relationship with Green. “He could care less about personal success. He’s just trying to win a championship.

“I just want to win. I don’t give a f— about nothing else. We ain’t going to never butt no motherf—ing heads. … That’s what people keep overlooking. They think like we going to get in fist fights. No we not. Because all we want to do is win.”

GREEN HAD WAITED nine years for this game of dominoes above the clouds. When Green played with Butler on the USA Basketball team that won gold in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, they spent time playing the only version of dominoes Butler played then — “nine no pull.”

Butler owned Green, something the ultracompetitive defender didn’t forget. Since then, Green has played a lot more dominoes — even playing online against friends — and got better over the past decade.

But so did Butler, who Green says is “a master at all of [the variety of dominoes games].”

“It’s like basketball. You know how to see plays before they even come,” Green told ESPN. “You can read the dominoes based off of what someone is playing. You have to manipulate the dominoes to get what you want out there to put the other person in a tough position. He’s really f—ing good.”

After playing countless hours on team flights and in their hotel rooms, Green finally earned his first win over Butler recently. But the real breakthrough happened between those domino sessions. The two would have long, deep conversations about how they grew up in places such as Tomball, Texas, and Saginaw, Michigan, how 29 teams passed on Butler in the 2011 draft and 34 teams skipped over Green the next year and how they can be misunderstood.

The two talk and laugh for so long that they lose track of time, sometimes forgetting to eat dinner and realizing in the wee hours of the morning that they have shootaround soon. Butler said they spent nearly six hours playing dominoes with locals at his Big Face coffee shop in Miami on Sunday.

“You heard all these stories about Jimmy Butler’s story,” Green said. “But I’ve never really heard the full story. I just heard bits and pieces of it. So I’m kind of using this time to get to know his story.

“Because Jimmy’s like this closed book that no one really knows.”

Whether it’s speculation over the infamous Minnesota Timberwolves practice with Karl-Anthony Towns or the dramatic divorce with the Heat, Butler says he doesn’t care what people think or say about him.

But he found common ground with Green, who has dealt with his own drama from the infamous Jordan Poole punch in practice to his indefinite suspension after his chokehold on Rudy Gobert and striking Jusuf Nurkic in the face last season.

Butler says he and Green have heard much of the same criticism.

“We got a lot in common with kids, our love for basketball,” Butler said. “Small town individuals that happen to end up on a big-time college basketball squad, late draft picks that have overcome everything to become who they are today. That’s what those conversations are and I just appreciate it. I shed grace on everybody that just wants to sit here and s— on Jimmy Butler III and talk. But it’s because you don’t know what I’m doing. Nobody does.

“[And] Draymond ain’t no f—ing a–hole. I knew it though. … It’s like, ‘Bro, nah, you just a winner. You’re a truth teller.’ And people don’t like that.”

During a 114-102 win over the Knicks on March 4, Butler saw Green yelling at a fan in Madison Square Garden and walked over to calm his teammate. He too has been trying to learn more about Green during their marathon dominoes sessions.

“If I know what makes you click, I know how to calm you down,” Butler said. “I know how to get you fired up. And I’ve learned a lot about Draymond too, to where when that motherf—er is yelling at a fan, I can be like, ‘Hey, hey, hey, hey, come on now. What are we doing?’

“‘Look man, they ain’t going to beat us. They’re not going to help us win and they’re not going to beat us. We are not putting this in [the referees’] hands. F— it.'”

Butler’s connection with the Warriors’ longtime defensive anchor has been a big part of the team’s recent success. Since Butler’s debut, the Warriors are second in the league in defensive efficiency (108.6), behind only the Detroit Pistons (108.5). The Warriors were 10th in that category before Butler’s arrival.

Butler and Warriors coach Steve Kerr say the Warriors discovered something in the second half of that win in New York. Coming out of halftime, the Warriors outscored the Knicks 67-47, playing the kind of two-way ball Kerr has been preaching. Butler, with the ball flowing through him in and out of the paint, had 13 of his 19 points and three of his four assists in that half.

“We turned the f—ing corner [that] night,” Butler said. “Talking about give me the ball and letting me play certain ways. … We figured something out. I’m much more efficient and I’m harder to guard when I get to do more than one thing besides isolate.”

The instant defensive connection between the two Warriors reminded Kerr of Green’s championship pairings with Andrew Bogut and Andre Iguodala. But as he thought about it a little bit more, Kerr likened Green and Butler to another elite defensive tag team.

“Pippen and Jordan,” Kerr told ESPN of his legendary former Bulls teammates.

“Just incredible intelligence and athleticism combined with versatility. There’s definitely some of that.”

After Butler’s first game as Warrior ended with a 132-111 comeback win in Chicago, Kerr compared Butler’s aura and swagger to a “lion.” It’s a description Kerr says he got from Green.

“Two lions are better than one,” Warriors guard Gary Payton II said.

THE TORONTO RAPTORS were looking to stun the Warriors for a second time this season last Thursday night with Curry in the locker room after a scary fall in the third quarter. Curry would sit out the rest of the game with what was later ruled a pelvic bruise and sat out Saturday’s loss in Atlanta (he is questionable to return Tuesday).

Jamal Shead was pushing the pace when he saw an open Ochai Agbaji streaking toward the basket. The Raptors’ point guard fired a lob from half court only to watch Green fly in and deflect the pass, preventing an easy score that would have cut the Warriors’ lead to one with 1:57 left.

Later, down three with 20 seconds remaining, Shead once again thought he had an opening after beating Brandin Podziemski toward the basket. But this time, Butler made a leaping game-sealing block on Shead at the rim.

As the Chase Center buzzed, the Warriors’ newest star walked toward half court and pointed at Green.

“I got you!” Butler yelled at Green, who chest bumped and roared back at his teammate. “I can do it too!”

In the span of a minute and a half, Green and Butler slammed the door on the Raptors for a 117-114 win.

“Draymond just fight. Draymond just got a will,” Butler said. “He is not the tallest guy. He don’t got the longest of arms, finds a way. I’m not here to say that [former teammates] Bam [Adebayo] not this or that Joakim [Noah] not this. That’s not what I’m doing.

“I’m just saying that motherf—er just gets it done. Like real defensive player of the year s—. How can you argue with it?”

Butler has been as much of a boon for Curry on the offensive end of the court as he has for Green.

Before Curry’s pelvic injury, Butler stabilized the non-Curry minutes — the Warriors were a plus-60 when Curry wasn’t on the court. And the Warriors have a 74% assist percentage since Feb. 8, the highest during that span, which would also be the highest assist percentage over a full season by any team since 1953-54, according to ESPN Research.

The Warriors are 7-2 in clutch-time games with Butler, who delivered his second triple-double as a Warrior with 16 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds to close out the Raptors with the Curry in the locker room. He isn’t in “Playoff Jimmy” form just yet as he went 4-for-15 shooting, including 1-for-11 in the fourth quarter. But it was his presence inside that opened up the game for others and his defense — he had two steals and two blocks — that helped save them that night.

“I think [it’s the] the disruption,” said Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau when asked how Butler would pair alongside Green. Thibodeau was Butler’s former coach with Chicago and Minnesota. “Their ability to think on their feet is really good and their anticipation. … Draymond’s unique because they’re not sacrificing defense when he’s at center. His ability to read plays, his anticipation, the way he roams and is so disruptive off the ball.

“Jimmy in a lot of ways is very similar.”

Curry has been looking for another star to help alleviate the offensive pressure. And Green has found another elite defender who wants to win just as badly as he does.

“For a team that’s beaten up on everyone for so many years, everybody wants to crush you,” Green said. “And sometimes you just need reinforcement. You need backup that’s not falling in line. You need backup that come with their own s—, backup that come with their own fear implemented around the landscape. We needed it.

“We’re both smart. And we’re both heartless … heartless when it comes to the opposition. He rewrites the book, which also rewrites the possibilities of things that can be done here.”