Buddy Hield scored 33 points, Stephen Curry tallied 19 of his 22 points in the second half, and the Golden State Warriors rode a stifling defensive performance to a 103-89 road victory over the Houston Rockets on Sunday in Game 7 of this Western Conference first-round series.
The seventh-seeded Warriors advance to play the sixth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves, with Game 1 set for Tuesday in Minneapolis. Their Game 7 win over the Rockets prevented the Warriors from blowing a 3-1 series lead and resulted in their fifth playoff series win over Houston since 2015.
Curry came alive when the Warriors needed him most, producing a driving layup and a 3-pointer to open the fourth quarter that extended the Golden State lead to 75-62. Hield drilled a 3-pointer with 8:18 left for his first basket of the second half before Curry scored again for an 82-70 lead.
“I thought Steph (Curry) was brilliant tonight,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr said. “I know he got off to a slow start shooting the ball, but the whole key to the game was taking care of the ball, and he managed the game beautifully. And you know it’s just a matter of time before his shot goes in. The reason we had the (12-point) lead at half was because of the way Steph took care of the ball, got us in our offense, and settled the game down.”
Hield shot 12 of 15 overall and 9 of 11 from behind the arc. Curry added 10 rebounds and seven assists to his ledger, while Jimmy Butler III posted 20 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. Draymond Green added 16 points, six rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots.
“Being in the zone is very spiritual,” Hield said. “It’s just you and that rim and the net and the ball. And you just figure it out. Sometimes you put anything up and it goes in. Just being at peace with your game.”
The Warriors repeatedly stuffed the Rockets at the rim. Houston had little success in the paint — excluding Amen Thompson, who thrived with 24 points on 9-of-16 shooting and nine rebounds.
Alperen Sengun paired 21 points with 14 rebounds but made only nine of 23 shots. The Rockets shot just 40.5 percent and missed 12 of 18 3-pointers. The Warriors finished 18 for 43 (41.9 percent) from behind the arc.
“It felt like we missed a lot of point-blank shots,” Houston coach Ime Udoka said. “Offensive rebounds, although we had 14, we didn’t really have a great percentage on the second chance (7-for-14). We only made 50 percent of those.”
The Warriors forged a six-point lead in the opening period before the Rockets clawed back, pulling even at 13-13 and securing their first lead when Jalen Green scored through a foul for a 19-17 lead with 1:24 left in the period.
But Hield drilled a 42-foot 3-pointer to beat the buzzer and supply the Warriors a 23-19 lead entering the second. The Warriors shot 6 of 12 from behind the arc in the frame and, behind Hield, maintained that shooting touch for the remainder of the first half.
Tari Eason shaved a 10-point deficit in the second quarter to 33-29 with a corner 3, only for Hield to respond three and a half minutes later with back-to-back 3-pointers that bumped the Golden State lead back to double digits. Curry didn’t record his first basket until 33 seconds remained in the half, a 3-pointer, and the Warriors carried a 51-39 lead into the intermission on the back of Hield, who scored 22 points in the half.
“The playoffs are physical; it is what it is,” Udoka said. “You have to play through some contact, and not seek fouls, and go to finish. At times, I think we got knocked off our spot, but we were doing the same thing as well to them. You give it on one end and take it on the other end. We just have to be a little bit more strong with our finishes or find our outlets instead of shooting over a few people. They are really good at positioning and coming across and helping, and being in the right spots. With our athletes and our size advantage, you’ve got to finish those easy ones.”
–Field Level Media
