HOUSTON — Shorter, older, slower.
Better.
The Warriors gave up pounds, inches, years, tons of rebounds, and a lot of other measurable and usually quite important things to the young and ferocious Rockets on Sunday, but the Warriors won Game 1 at Toyota Center, 95-85, anyway.
“I won’t say that we’re smaller,” Jimmy Butler said, “we’re just not as tall. But we’ve got hella fight.”
The Warriors stuck with their small-ball lineup and surrendered a stunning 22 offensive rebounds to the Rockets, who played taller and heavier players at almost every position for most of the game. But through all the banging and clanging in the lane, the Warriors were tougher, smarter, steadier, more locked in on defense, and, of course, they had Curry flinging shots in from all corners of the arena to close the game.
The Warriors needed all of that to take immediate control of this series by winning a game on the road for the 29th time out of 30 series in the Curry era. They’ve done this before. They know what it feels like. They know what it means to go on the road and take the life out of an opponent, at least for one game. They live for this, actually.
“Was the Laker series [in 2023] the only one we didn’t?” Draymond Green said. Note: Yes, that’s the only one. “Shows a lot about the character of our team.”
The Warriors have done this so often that the main emotion expressed from the players afterwards was disappointment that they didn’t play better, that they gave up so many offensive rebounds, and that there were several loose balls that never should’ve gone to the Rockets.
There was very little crowing. There was a lot of talk about locking in for Game 2 here on Wednesday, with a chance to really put a hold on this series. It was all very intellectualized; it was matter-of-fact Warriors-being-the-Warriors stuff.
“No, I didn’t mention it at all,” Steve Kerr said with a sarcastic bite when I asked if he readied his team for a very physical game. “I totally forgot to tell the team that Houston is really physical and great on the glass.”
Folks, when they talk like this, the Warriors are very, very, very dangerous. We’ve all seen this before.
The formula for this series
The Warriors felt like they had the formula for this series figured out going into Sunday, and yes, it seems like they really did.
The formula: Lean hard on their future Hall of Famers matched against the inexperienced Rockets, don’t turn the ball over and fuel the Rockets’ fastbreak, dare Houston to take and make jump shots, and just hold on for dear life on the glass.
The result: Butler played 42 amazing minutes, Curry played 40, Draymond was everywhere on defense in his 36, and their energy and experience carried over to role players like Brandin Podziemski, who made several early shots and battled every moment, and Moses Moody, who made his only two shots of the game in the final four minutes — but both were enormous. After turning it over 20 times in their loss to the Rockets back on April 6, the Warriors only had 11 turnovers on Sunday. And the Rockets were just 6-for-29 from 3-point distance and their starting guards, Jalen Green and Fred VanVleet, were a combined 7-for-34 overall.
The Rockets almost certainly will shoot the ball better in future games of this series. But they’ve been a very inefficient team in halfcourt offense all season, and it’s hard to imagine that they’re going to turn into a great one now, after this Game 1 fizzle.
“If it’s a halfcourt game, I think our defense can really get the job done in this series,” Kerr said. “So we can’t be turning it over; we can’t give up a million offensive boards, but they’re going to get some, that’s for sure. …If we’re smart and tough, then I think we’re gonna be in good shape.”
The Warriors didn’t force bigger players into the rotation just to match the Rockets, who often played two centers and a fleet of attacking wing players. The Warriors stuck with what they do best — and dished out plenty of wham-bam activity, too. Oh, and Curry scored 31 points on 12-of-19 shooting (5-of-9 from 3-point) and Butler scored 25 on 10-of-19 shooting and had 7 rebounds and 6 assists.
The Warriors don’t have to bulldoze the Rockets to win this series. They just have to remain standing. And deliver a few shots of their own.
“We met brute force with brute force,” Butler said. “Maybe a little bit of finesse in there as well.”
‘I’m cut out for this’
After his presser, I asked Draymond how his body felt after spending so much time trying to keep himself between the ball and Steven Adams, Alperen Sengun, and all the other Rockets.
“I’m a little tired tonight,” Draymond said. “But you know, I’m cut out for it. This is what it’s like in the playoffs.”
There will be more of this in the rest of this series. It’s not like Houston’s going to acquire a bunch of great shooters between now and Wednesday. It’s highly likely that they will adjust to this loss just by trying to turn up the physicality even more.
Do the Warriors have the formula for that, too? Probably. They might not win Game 2, but they already know that they can win this series in six games if they just win all of the games at Chase Center. And they know they’ve already beaten the Rockets once, on the road, with the Rockets at a very high gear.
“They’re not a typical modern NBA team — in terms of spreading you out, playing fast, shooting a million threes,” Kerr said. “They’re kind of old school. In many ways they’re in the image of their coach. Ime, he was a grinder as a player. …
“They know where their advantage lies. It’s playing Adams a lot. Sometimes playing with Sengun. Having everybody crash. It felt like 1997 out there to me. A completely different NBA game than we’re used to. And we’ve gotta be ready for that. This is what this series is going to be.”
That’s what the series already is, of course. The Warriors took everything the Rockets could give them in Game 1. And the Warriors came out of it thinking that they’re destined to play better than this. In their minds, I’m pretty sure the Warriors are also thinking that they’re destined to play several more rounds than this.