Jimmy Butler III fought through injury to lead the Golden State Warriors to a crucial Game 4 win over Houston Rockets.
Jimmy Butler III returned from a one-game injury absence to score 14 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter to help the Golden State Warriors record a 109-106 victory over the Houston Rockets in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series in San Francisco.
Brandin Podziemski made six 3-pointers and scored 26 points as the Warriors took a 3-1 lead on Monday in the best-of-seven Western Conference matchup.
Stephen Curry scored 17 points, Buddy Hield added 15, and Quinten Post had 13 off the bench for seventh-seeded Golden State.
Alperen Sengun led all scorers with 31 points and 10 rebounds, and Fred VanVleet knocked down eight 3-pointers while scoring 25 points for the second-seeded Rockets. Amen Thompson put up 17 points for Houston.
The Rockets had a chance to tie in the final second, but VanVleet was off-target on a long 3-point attempt.
Game 5 is on Wednesday night in Houston.
Butler missed Game 3 due to a pelvic injury and had just four points in the first half of Game 4 before excelling in the second half. He ended the night 12-for-12 on free throw attempts, and he scored all of Golden State’s last five points at the line.
Butler was fouled on a 3-point attempt with 58.7 seconds left and made all three free throws to give Golden State a 107-104 lead.
Sengun’s driving hoop brought the Rockets within one with 40.8 seconds to play.
Houston later had the chance to take the lead, but Sengun’s 11-footer was off the mark with 6.4 seconds left. Butler made two free throws with four seconds left before VanVleet airballed his shot at the buzzer.
Golden State shot 41.9 percent from the field, including 17-of-46 (37 percent) from 3-point range.
The Rockets made 49.4 percent of their shots and were 11-of-23 (48.7 percent) from behind the line. Dillon Brooks had 11 points, and Steven Adams blocked four shots for Houston.
The Warriors trailed by seven points at half-time before beginning the third quarter with an 18-1 run.
The Rockets scored the next seven points and eventually knotted the score at 74 on Sengun’s basket with 2 minutes 35 seconds remaining.
Golden State took an 82-80 edge into the final stanza, and Podziemski started the quarter with a 3-pointer. However, Houston scored 14 of the next 19 points and took a 94-90 lead on Thompson’s basket with 7:33 left.
Butler later scored four points during a 7-0 burst and Golden State led by three with 2:12 to play.
VanVleet then canned another 3-pointer to tie it at 104 with 1:20 remaining.
VanVleet scored 12 points in the first half and Houston held a 57-50 lead at the break. Podziemski paced Golden State with 13 before intermission.
Cavaliers sweep Heat with record-setting blowout
In an earlier playoff match on Monday, Donovan Mitchell scored 22 points and the Cleveland Cavaliers clinched a 4-0 first-round series sweep with a 138-83 rout of the host Miami Heat, the fourth-largest winning margin in an NBA playoff game.
De’Andre Hunter (19 points), Ty Jerome (18) and Evan Mobley (17) all played their part, while Jarrett Allen finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds along with six first-half steals.
Nikola Jovic sat out the first quarter before finishing with a career playoff-high 24 points for Miami, while Bam Adebayo posted 13 points and 12 boards.
The emphatic Game 4 victory earned the first-seed Cavaliers a berth in the Eastern Conference semifinals, while ending the eighth-seeded Heat’s season in humiliating fashion.
The 55-point margin was Miami’s biggest postseason defeat, surpassing the previous record of 37 points set two days ago in Game 3.
“We were humbled, but they [Cavaliers] had so much to do with how we looked,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. “None of us would have guessed this series would have gone this way coming out of our two play-ins. They just took it to another level. They left us behind these last two games.”
Cleveland will play either the Indiana Pacers or the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. The Pacers currently lead their best-of-seven series 3-1.
