Every time a young Rocket barked at the Warriors on Saturday, the grip tightened some more. Every time Draymond Green, Buddy Hield, or another Warrior fired back with a laugh and a taunt, it got worse and wobblier for the Rockets — and just about blissful for the Warriors.
And finally, when Jalen Green had to be held back from charging at Green as the Rockets left the court after the Warriors’ crucial 104-93 Game 3 victory at Chase Center, it didn’t seem like a fair tussle anymore.
It felt more like a couple of stomach punches to set up the knockout.
Because the Warriors didn’t just take a 2-1 lead over Houston, they did it without superstar Jimmy Butler, who was held out to rest his bruised pelvis and gluteal muscle contusion. And they did it while driving the Rockets into alternating fits of fury and confusion.
The Warriors are now just two wins away from the second round of the Western Conference playoffs, with expectations that Butler will be back for Monday’s Game 4 at Chase Center, and they have seized all psychological, logical, clinical, and emotional advantages over Houston.
If the Rockets can’t beat the Warriors when Butler is out, well, how are they going to do it when Butler’s back and the Warriors have picked up all this momentum? And what are they going to do when they have to hear all the gibes from Draymond, Hield & Co. through the rest of this series?
“I think for us psychologically, it just kind of reconfirms to ourselves that we can do it, that we’re capable of making any adjustment,” Draymond said afterward.
In Game 3, the Warriors got far sturdier performances out of their supporting cast than they did when Butler was injured early in Game 2. On Saturday, the Warriors’ defense held Houston to just 39.5% shooting and stampeded to a 35-22 fourth-quarter win. Gary Payton II made huge plays at the rim, Quentin Post battled on the boards after being switched into the starting lineup, and Hield made 5 three-pointers on his way to 17 points.
“Buddy, he’s a guy who is one of the best shooters in the league and he’s always capable of making shots,” Kerr said. “And because of the constant blitzing of Steph, it opened up the floor and we finally figured out, you know, how to space the floor and get the ball in that blitz. We were much better in the second half than the first. But he got some good looks and made some big shots.”
In the Warriors’ Butler-era lexicon, he’s Robin to Stephen Curry’s Batman. So this is how Hield described Saturday’s developments: “Robin was out tonight so I had to step up.”
Oh, and Curry checkmated Houston’s blitzing defense on his way to 36 points, 9 assists, and 7 rebounds.
And then Butler sent this out on Instagram: Batman had been called. And Batman showed up.
Clearly, this not a team that is lacking confidence or colorful ways to express it.
The Warriors felt pretty strongly going into this series that they were the better and headier team, even though they were much lower seeded. After winning Game 1 in Houston, the Warriors felt validated. Then Butler was injured in the Warriors’ Game 2 loss, and maybe things got a little fuzzier. At least that’s what the Rockets felt.
“You better pray Jimmy’s back,” Fred VanVleet yelled to Draymond in the closing minutes of Game 2, according to multiple sources.
But on Saturday night, as they savored the victory, several Warriors people pointed out the faultiness of VanVleet’s tactics. Why would the Rockets admit that they were hoping that Butler didn’t come back? And if you do that, what do you say after you lose to the Warriors without Butler?
Draymond and Jalen Green had plenty of things to say to each other after the buzzer, of course. It’s all fair and feisty in playoff competition. No young team like the Rockets was ever handed anything by a team as experienced and accomplished as the Warriors. They’ve got to fight for it. There’s no sin in yapping at the Warriors, basically.
But the way the Rockets are doing it seems particularly ineffectively, poorly timed, and not at all pitched in the direction of actually playing winning playoff basketball. The Rockets seem scattered. They sound scattered. They’re missing too many shots and losing too much focus. And the Warriors are loving every moment of it.
“Just talking,” Jalen Green said when asked what Draymond was doing after the game. “He can’t really do much of anything else, so talking is his only way.”
Draymond and the rest of the Warriors had no response to Jalen Green’s comments — or to much of anything except the basketball being played in this series. The Warriors didn’t join in on the conspiracy theories about Amen Thompson’s crash into Butler that caused the injury and aren’t campaigning for more foul calls, except when Curry is held egregiously.
The Warriors are the old zen masters just letting the Rockets run around at 1,000 miles per hour, heading mostly in the wrong directions. And after Saturday’s win, the Warriors are within reach of ending this series pretty quickly — which, if they can pull it off, would give extra time off for Butler, Curry, and Draymond before Round 2.
“It allows us to breathe tomorrow, knowing we’re going to give the guys the day off,” Steve Kerr said of the Game 3 win. “And it allows us to take a step back, allow the guys to feel great about what they just accomplished.
“It gives us confidence to know we can win a game down Jimmy. A lot of guys stepped up. So I’d assume when they come back in this building on Monday they’re going to feel better about themselves and better about the team.”
Kerr mentioned that the Warriors have a history of winning big playoff games without key players — including all of the 2019 Western Conference finals over Portland without Kevin Durant and Game 3 of the 2023 first round over Sacramento without Draymond.
“We’ve had so many games over the years where we were missing somebody,” Kerr said. “And the way you (win) is you take care of the ball and you defend your ass off. And that’s what we did tonight.”
It was just one win. But the Warriors have won enough playoff games and enough titles to know when they’ve got a hold on their opponent. They know when the series is tilting heavily their way. And when a few more shoves will topple the whole thing over.