Warriors eliminate Rockets in Game 7 behind Hield’s hot start, Curry and Butler’s closing touch

HOUSTON – With the season on the line, the Warriors asked their veterans to carry the team against a foe that was pushing to make an incredible comeback. 

They answered the call. 

On the verge of an epic postseason collapse on Sunday night in Houston, the Warriors’ Hall of Famers showed up. 

Laden with championship experience, the Warriors closed out youthful Houston using a combination of Steph Curry’s phenomenal late-game shotmaking, some timely Jimmy Butler baskets and heady defense by Draymond Green in the Warriors’ 103-89 victory. 

“The way we came into it, this is another opportunity that we should be thankful for, considering all the things we’ve gone through our entire run, and that we’re still trying to do it,” Curry said.

It was the fifth time the Warriors have beaten the Rockets in a series in the Curry era.

Steph Curry scored 22 and showed off his signature “night-night” celebration after Buddy Hield made a 3 that followed Curry’s own tough triple late in the fourth to put the Warriors up by 20. Butler poured in 20 and Green did a little bit of everything with 16 points, six rebounds and five assists. 

It wasn’t all the Big 3, though. In Game 7s, teams often get contributions from unlikely places, and Sunday was no exception.  

Hield scored 33 points and made 9 of 11 3-pointers, 22 of those points coming in the first half.

That provided the spark the Warriors needed to close out the Rockets, who had clawed back from a 3-1 deficit, and advance to a second-round matchup with Minnesota. 

The home team got 24 points from Amen Thompson, 21 from Alperen Sengun and 17 from Fred VanVleet.

It was close for a while. 

After a slow start that saw Curry score just three points in the first half, he came alive late in the third, when the 37-year-old scored two quick buckets.

Then he repeated that trick to start the fourth, taking on Jabari Smith Jr. and Thompson in isolation, and scorched both with tough baskets to extend the Warriors’ lead to 75-62 with just 11 minutes left in regulation.

“I’m trying to make the right play soften them up, and eventually, you can make your presence felt scoring-wise,” Curry said.

After going into the third quarter with a double-digit lead and extending it to as much as 54-39, Houston responded with a 10-2 run over the next four minutes, forcing two turnovers and converting on both to key the run. 

The Rockets were able to eventually cut the lead to 63-60 before Warriors coach Steve Kerr called a timeout, and the Warriors went on a run of their own. 

Butler canned a flat-but-accurate corner 3, and then Green found openings in the Rockets’ interior and converted on both a layup and a soft floater to give Golden State a 70-62 lead after three quarters. 

Golden State got early contributions from its non-Curry and Butler players, with Green making two 3-pointers off spot-up opportunities in the first two minutes of the game.

Hield, who was scoreless in Game 6, ended the period with a corner triple and a buzzer-beating halfcourt bomb to put the Warriors up 23-19, helping offset a scoreless quarter by Curry. 

The veteran shooting guard kept up his torrid play in the second quarter, scoring 14 in the period.

“I was just trying to seize the moment, and enjoy the moment,” Hield said. “It was fun, but a lot of nerves at first, so I had to be myself. It was not normal in the locker room, so I was just trying to be myself. Tonight was fun, and all glory to God.”

Meanwhile, Golden State’s defense remained stingy while the rest of the offense tried to find its way.

After a few Quinten Post minutes, Kerr tasked Looney with absorbing the backup center minutes and did an admirable job of banging with Sengun and Adams in the slugfest.

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Curry remained scoreless until the final minute of the half but still found a way to contribute. 

He was an active defender in the Warriors’ 2-3 zone during the second quarter, and also had 10 rebounds and seven assists, including a slick dime to a cutting Brandin Podziemski on the short roll.

Podziemski’s short shot gave the Warriors a 39-29 lead with 3:19 left in the half. The Warriors were still up by double-digits when Draymond Green got his regularly scheduled technical foul when he hit VanVleet in the neck after Green reached in on him. 

The Warriors led 51-39 at halftime, and pulled away in the fourth quarter to clinch the victory. 

The Warriors will play Game 1 in Minneapolis on Tuesday (6:30 PT, TNT).