HOUSTON — With guile, guts and 3-point shooting, the Warriors are moving onto the next round.
Steve Kerr’s pregame message for the Warriors was to “lose yourself” in the game, to lock in on the game plan, and ultimately, to “let it rip.” Golden State, seasoned for this type of pressure-packed situation, understood the assignment and seized the moment in a 103-89 Game 7 victory.
As Steph Curry struggled to score early, Buddy Hield powered Golden State’s first half offense with 22 points while a tenacious effort on defense bought Curry time to find his flow.
With three minutes left in the fourth quarter, Curry poked a steal away from Rockets star Alperen Sengun before dancing on Jalen Green for a step-back 3-pointer. His patented “night-night” celebration came after digging out a loose ball and finding Hield for a corner 3, sending Rockets fans for the exits.
Curry scored 14 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter and added 10 rebounds and seven assists. Hield finished with a game-high 33 points in the performance of his NBA life. Jimmy Butler logged 20 points and spent a moment screaming in Curry’s face in jubilation as the Warriors put the finishing touches on the victory.
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“Couldn’t be more proud of our guys,” Kerr said postgame. “That was an incredibly impressive display of resolve, discipline. Defense was fantastic, the ball security. We had game-plan discipline, followed it to a T, and then we had multiple guys step up.”
The Warriors set the tone on defense early on Sunday night as Draymond Green routinely stonewalled Sengun. Houston’s center finished 9-for-23 while the Warriors limited the Rockets to six total 3-pointers.
The win earns the Warriors the right to play the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference semifinals. Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobert and the Wolves eliminated the Lakers in five games and are rested for Game 1 in Minneapolis on Tuesday.
Even though Golden State was in danger of blowing a 3-1 lead, Game 7 was a reminder of what happens when Curry and Green play alongside a star of Butler’s caliber: the Warriors have a puncher’s chance in any series.
“This is exactly what the trade was for, to get back to this level,” Green said.
Since acquiring Butler, the Warriors are 28-11 including postseason play. Butler dropped 25 points in a Game 1 win, then gutted through a glute bruise with 27 points and grabbed the biggest rebound of the season in Game 4. With the season on the line, he helped Curry control the fourth quarter on Sunday to eliminate Houston.
Although defeating a two-seed, 52-win Rockets team is certainly an upset, the Warriors had confidence throughout the series. As long as they kept their turnovers under control and forced the Rockets to play in the halfcourt, Golden State would be in good shape. The Warriors maintained belief even after getting trounced in Houston in Game 5 and getting outplayed at home in Game 6.
“We were ready to compete tonight,” Butler said after Houston forced a Game 7 on Friday. “Things didn’t go our way. We’re going to be ready to compete on Sunday, and we’re going to make the game go our way.”
Green certainly willed the game in the Warriors’ direction. Bodying Sengun inside and wrestling for rebounds, the undersized center took advantage of the officiating crew letting a lot of contact slide. He also hit two early 3-pointers and survived a mental lapse late in the second quarter when he was assessed a technical foul for flailing at Fred VanVleet.
Green led a Warriors defense that held the Rockets to 39 first-half points on 35.6% shooting. He and Kevon Looney protected the paint and the Warriors mixed in zone looks, communicating well in them.
Hield propelled Golden State’s offense as Curry’s jumper was mis-calibrated in the first half. “That was one of the toughest defenses I’ve ever faced,” Curry said postgame. The veteran 3-point specialist poured in 22 first-half points while draining six of his seven threes. He did what the Warriors couldn’t do in Games 5 and 6: shoot the Rockets out of their double-big zone.
In the third quarter, the Rockets chipped away at Golden State’s lead as the Warriors went on a three-minute drought and started to turn the ball over. Amen Thomspon leveraged his all-world athleticism to get into the lane and Steven Adams controlled the offensive glass like he did all series.
A 15-point advantage at the 11-minute mark of the third had dwindled to just three points with under two minutes before Butler drilled a corner 3-pointer.
Curry built upon the strong finish when he opened the fourth quarter by beating Jabari Smith Jr. off the bounce and then draining a pull-up 3. The latter put the Warriors up by 13, with Curry shaking his head, slapping his chest and flexing as Houston called timeout.
Eventually, the more playoff-proven, poised team prevailed. The Rockets’ best players are Jalen Green (age 23), Sengun (22), and Thompson (22). They joined a long list of plucky, athletic teams to pose formidable threats before becoming stepping stones.
Curry has been tormenting different variations of Rockets teams for about a decade. He’s now 5-0 in playoff series against the Rockets. In the fourth, he sprung loose with isolations, inverted pick-and-rolls, by turning the corner on high traps.
As the Warriors sealed Game 7, Curry’s body language translated to something akin to disgust of the Rockets. It was a physical, chippy series, and Curry had to work to even get the ball every minute he played.
So Curry sent Houston home. And the Warriors to Minneapolis.
“I think this group is capable of exactly what we set out to do, which is win a championship,” Green said. “We know the things we need to improve on and continue to get better at. But I’ve got the utmost confidence in this group. Didn’t want to go seven games, but in the end it won’t hurt us with that experience our young guys got the opportunity to get. But I think we’re right where we need to be, right where we want to be, with an opportunity to continue to extend this thing. We believe.”