Category: Basketball

Steve Kerr shares biggest concern for Warriors heading into Game 7 vs. Rockets originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Warriors fumbled a golden opportunity Friday night to close out their first-round NBA playoff series with the Houston Rockets.

Steve Kerr‘s team never seemed to meet the moment emotionally, and they couldn’t get the sellout Chase Center crowd to serve as the boisterous sixth man.

The Rockets, on the brink of elimination, strolled into San Francisco and walked away with a convincing 115-107 win to force a decisive Game 7 on Sunday back in Houston.

After the Warriors landed in Houston on Saturday night, Kerr spoke to local reporters on Zoom, and while answering a question from NBC Sports Bay Area’s Monte Poole about rookie Quinten Post‘s Game 6 performance, Golden State’s coach touched on what he’s worried about heading into the winner-take-all Game 7.

“I thought [Quinten] did a pretty good job in the first half defensively,” Kerr said. “And then the second half, I thought we got a little scattered with our game, with our emotion. That’s the biggest thing. There’s always going to be matchups and things that you try to do to protect certain matchups, certain actions that people are running, whatever. There are scheme changes you can make.

“But [the] biggest thing is that we got out of sorts last night. We got too emotional. First play of the fourth quarter was indicative of letting our guard down a few times and that’s all it takes in a series like this. [Fred] VanVleet gets the 4-point play, it goes from [a two-point lead] to six, and the whole nature of the game changes, and that’s based on just a missed matchup.

“So, that’s my biggest concern tomorrow is, just our overall emotional response to a night where we really weren’t ourselves.”

The Warriors built a commanding three-games-to-one series lead after splitting the first two games in Houston and winning Games 3 and 4 in San Francisco. But even after playing so well in three of the first four games, Golden State couldn’t recreate that energy in Game 5 in Houston or Game 6 at Chase Center.

So now, the Warriors are flirting with disaster. A loss on Sunday would mark the second blown three-games-to-one series lead during the Kerr era (2016 NBA Finals).

If Kerr is concerned enough to talk publicly about his team’s emotional response, it’s a safe bet that he has addressed it with his players.

They know they have to be at their absolute best on Sunday.

Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler have played in countless high-stakes NBA playoff games. The moment shouldn’t be too big for them.

But if the Rockets go on a run during Game 7 and the Warriors can’t weather the storm, their 2024-25 NBA season and their championship aspirations might come crashing down in historic fashion.

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Jaylen vs. Jalen could be marquee matchup in Celtics-Knicks showdown originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Jayson Tatum’s season-opening 3-pointer hadn’t even reached the twine and Jaylen Brown was already stalking in the direction of Jalen Brunson.

Thirteen seconds into the 2024-25 season, with Boston fresh off receiving their championship rings on opening night inside a delirious TD Garden, Brown perched himself at Brunson’s hip 90 feet from the basket and stayed Velcroed to him for the entire possession.

Six months later, we can’t help but wonder how much time Brown will spend glued to Brunson when the Celtics and Knicks tip off an Eastern Conference semifinal series on Monday night.

During the 2024-25 season, Brown only defended one player (Zach LaVine) for more possessions than Brunson, per NBA tracking. Brown logged 12 minutes, 33 seconds of total matchup time and 72.3 possessions defended. Those numbers could spike on a playoff stage.

Brown taking turns harassing an opposing team’s top scoring threat has become a playoff ritual that seemed to get magnified with his work against James Harden in the 2023 Eastern Conference semifinals. During last year’s title run, Brown earned a pair of MVP honors in large part due to his defensive efforts, especially his NBA Finals harassment of Luka Doncic.

Brunson, the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year who keyed New York’s first-round triumph over the Detroit Pistons with his late-game heroics, has been one of Brown’s toughest covers in recent seasons. No one scored more points against Brown this season, with Brunson totaling 26 points on 10-of-17 shooting with two turnovers, per NBA tracking.

No one on the Celtics truly had an answer for Brunson over the course of the season. Brunson generated 25 points on 10-of-24 shooting against the All-Defense tandem of Derrick White and Jrue Hoilday, though the Stock Exchange combo did a good job keeping him off the free throw line (only one shooting foul over 112 possessions defended).

The Celtics almost will certainly give Brunson a bunch of different looks and coverages. Teams have no choice but to send multiple bodies his way, and Boston occasionally will live with the Josh Harts and OG Anunobys of the world getting decent looks to get the ball out of Brunson’s hands.

But our biggest question before the series tips is simply whether Brown can use his size and strength to make Brunson work for his points. After a poor showing in New York on April 8, Brown sat out the final three games of the Celtics’ regular-season slate due to knee woes.

Brown admitted there were nights in Round 1 where that knee limited him more than others, even as he averaged 23 points while shooting 49.4 percent from the floor and 44.4 percent beyond the 3-point arc during the five-game triumph over the Magic.

Do the Celtics trust that Brown is healthy enough to chase the shifty Brunson? What’s more, is Holiday healthy enough to do the same after sitting out the final three games of the Orlando series with a hamstring injury?

We suspect Brown is eager to take on the challenge of defending Brunson. The Magic were gritty defenders, but the Knicks can score points in bunches when Brunson is fueling the New York offense. Even if the Celtics are content to let Brunson get his points and force others to beat them, there will be a desire to make him work and try to get the ball out of his hands.

The Celtics enjoyed their best defensive success against Brunson in a February meeting in Boston. Brunson finished with 22 points on 9-of-19 shooting but didn’t attempt a single free throw — one of only two times all season he didn’t get to the charity stripe (the other was when he played just 23 minutes against the Pacers in mid-February).

Brunson had gotten to the line 13 times (and made all his freebies) during an earlier February meeting with the Celtics in New York. Brunson finished with 36 points that night, and while the Celtics still won, the priority this season clearly has been to defend Brunson without fouling.

Outside that game, Brunson generated just eight total free throw attempts in the other three games against the Celtics.

In that third meeting in which Brunson didn’t get to the charity stripe, the Celtics gave Payton Pritchard a bunch of turns as primary defender. Brunson was credited with 14 points on 6-of-6 shooting with Pritchard defending him, per NBA tracking. Coming off a solid defensive showing in Round 1 against bigger covers on the Magic, Pritchard should be eager to show that was an aberration.

The trio of White, Holiday, and Brown combined to hold Brunson scoreless on 0-for-7 shooting with three turnovers in that third regular-season meeting.

Again, no one defender can fully take away Brunson. Boston’s bigs have to be ready with backline help when he zigs and zags his way to the rim. Brown’s strength and size could be vital to offering resistance in Brunson getting where he wants to go.

The Celtics need to make Brunson work on the other end of the court and try to take advantage of his defensive limitations. It would also benefit Boston not to let games be close at the finish line where Brunson tends to go into turbo mode.

Brunson’s season started with Brown attached to his hip, and the Celtics probably wouldn’t mind if it ended the same way.

Why Warriors must lean on more than experience in Game 7 vs. Rockets originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO – Experience was supposed to be the Warriors’ winning factor going into the first round of the NBA playoffs against the much-younger Houston Rockets, and it was the theme Friday night following their 115-107 Game 6 loss at Chase Center. 

The Warriors had two straight chances at closing out the series after taking a three-games-to-one lead, and let both opportunities slip away. Now they’ll enter Sunday’s Game 7 in Houston with all the momentum gone, but history on their side.

It’s easy to assume everything feels faster in a Game 7. Heartbeats speed up and adrenaline is begging to burst. There’s truth to that in these pressure-packed situations, but the whole vibe is different than any player or coach can describe. The Rockets have home-court advantage, which also can produce 48 minutes of tense anticipation from a crowd witnessing a rock fight between two teams whose dislike for each other isn’t a secret.

Having gone through all those emotions multiple times, the Warriors trust they’ll be able to meet the moment. 

“Just confidence, belief,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “I know our guys believe and they’ll be ready to go.”

Those same sentiments were shared by Kerr’s biggest stars.

The frustration of their Game 6 loss wasn’t gone. It just had to be flushed right away, shifting the focus to what could be their last game as a team together if they don’t rip Houston’s hearts out as they have done in the past. 

“A Game 7 is a Game 7,” Draymond Green said. “I think anytime you have the opportunity to play in Game 7, it’s fun, it’s exciting. It’s for all the marbles, so move on. We’ve moved on. 

“Learn from what we did wrong. It’s kind of obvious what we did wrong. Get ready for the game. I think Game 7s are fun.”

When the Warriors were last tasked with a Game 7, Steph Curry gave an impassioned speech to his teammates and dropped 50 points on the Sacramento Kings. Curry always has the ability to explode for a historic night under the bright lights. Not too high, not too low, he just wants the Warriors able to withstand anything back in Houston. 

“We need to be able to manage the emotions of the next 48 hours,” Curry said. “Again, not panic, but have a sense of urgency on the adjustments we need to make going into the Game 7. How to deal with a hostile environment. I think we’ve had one in that building before. You understand the crowd is going to be into it.

“How we start the game is going to matter. It’s going to be a long 48 minutes. Just stick with it and come with a level of aggressiveness, attention to detail, just the idea that it’s going to be a game of runs. You got to just embrace it, have fun with it, show up with kind of a killer instinct. Everybody got to be like that.”

Curry and Green have played five Game 7s together and are 3-2. Jimmy Butler has played four Game 7s in his career and is 2-2. On the other side, the Rockets have four players who have combined to play 10 Game 7s, with the rest of the roster never having been there before.

The past also can’t be the Warriors’ saving grace. If experience is what the series was going to come down to, the Warriors would have met the moment of Game 5 and slammed the door shut the last time they were in Houston. Instead, they played like they had a game to mess around with and trailed by as much as 31 points. Just three minutes into Game 6, Green was given a Flagrant 1 foul that the Rockets scored four points from. 

The Rockets, not the Warriors, were the more composed team Friday night. Curry had three turnovers in the first quarter, four in the first half and five overall in the loss. He now has 24 through six games, making up for them by averaging 24.3 points on 46.7 percent shooting and 39.1 percent from three, with 5.2 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game. His longtime teammate has been nearly as careless with the ball. 

Green racked up four turnovers Friday night and is at 19 in the series. Offense is secondary for Draymond, but he has four more turnovers than made shots, and the Warriors will need a defensive masterclass out of him to help negate Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams. 

Jimmy Butler (27 points, nine rebounds and eight assists) easily was the Warriors’ best player in Game 6. As he continues playing through his pelvic contusion, the Warriors can’t ask for much more. But what about everybody else around their stars? 

“Make shots,” Curry said. “That’s me. That’s Jimmy. That’s everybody.”

Buddy Hield remained in the starting lineup for Game 6 and was a dud for the Dubs, going scoreless in 17 minutes. Hield scored 32 points between the Warriors’ wins in Games 3 and 4, but he has scored only 11 points the other four games. Brandin Podziemski and Moses Moody both have low overall field goal percentages for the series but are shooting in the high 30s from deep. They’ll be left open, and they’ll have to make the Rockets pay, as Podziemski did in Game 4 and Moody has in the clutch earlier in the series. 

Kerr needed 17 minutes from 7-footer Quinten Post in Game 6, but he only had one rebound while being picked apart defensively, was whistled for five fouls and made one of his four 3-point attempts. The Warriors are shooting 22 percent from three when the Rockets use their two-big lineup of Adams and Sengun. 

Pairing Butler alongside Curry had Green guaranteeing a championship on national TV at the All-Star break. The Warriors always are confident when those three lead them to battle. They themselves have to rise to their latest Game 7 challenge, and those behind them can’t crumble under the pressure.

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Steph hopes to repeat his epic 50-point Game 7 performance vs. Rockets originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

After the Warriors fumbled a 3-1 series lead against the Houston Rockets, they will play a do-or-die Game 7 in a hostile road environment Sunday at Toyota Center.

But Steph Curry has been here before, and if history repeats itself, Golden State should be in good shape.

The last time the Warriors played in a Game 7 was two seasons ago against the Sacramento Kings in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs. Similarly, the Warriors played the win-or-go-home Game 7 contest on the “road” 80 miles northeast at Golden 1 Center. Curry erupted for a then-historic 50-point flurry with seven made 3s to secure the victory and advance to the second round.

“That was just a great game overall,” Curry told reporters Friday as he recalled that historic night in Sacramento. “Hopefully, I can repeat that.”

“That was just a great game overall. Hopefully I can repeat that.”

Steph Curry on his Game 7 performance in Sacramento a couple years ago pic.twitter.com/gvcHIOQMEO

— 95.7 The Game (@957thegame) May 3, 2025

Golden State had a 3-1 series lead over Houston after winning its first two games of the series at home, with a chance to close it out and send the Rockets packing in their house in Game 5. But a wonky start was too much to overcome as the Warriors fell 131-116.

The Warriors had yet another opportunity to advance to the Western Conference semifinals in front of their home Chase Center crowd Friday night, but the lack of consistent contributions from players not named Curry or Jimmy Butler affected their chances as they fell 115-107.

Curry and Butler combined for 56 points. The rest of the starters — Draymond Green, Gary Payton II and Buddy Hield — combined for 13.

But Curry and the Warriors know the focus immediately must shift to Sunday, when Curry expects the nerves to kick in under the bright lights but is looking forward to fully embracing it.

“It’s just the nerves and the adrenaline, and you understand the stakes,” Curry said. “If you don’t play your best game, you don’t figure out a way to win, you’re going home. But it’s also exhilarating because when you do, it brings the best out of you. There’s no better feeling of closing out a series with just the whole Game 7 vibe.

” … It’s what this league is about. It’s a great opportunity to show up when it matters most. And have an opportunity to move on. You don’t really do anything different. But you have to embrace the nerves and the adrenaline of it.”

The winner of Sunday’s Game 7 will advance to a second-round matchup with Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves.

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Fred VanVleet scored 29 points as the Houston Rockets beat the Golden State Warriors 115-107 to level their NBA play-off first-round series at 3-3 and force a deciding game seven.

Experienced point guard VanVleet starred for the Rockets, adding eight assists and eight rebounds to his points haul, while Alperen Sengun recorded a double-double with 21 points and 14 rebounds.

The Warriors held a commanding 3-1 lead in the series but have twice failed to close it out, losing to the Rockets in game five on Wednesday and again in game six on Friday.

Rockets head coach Ime Udoka said of VanVleet: "He's had some really good stretches lately.

"He knows what it is. He's been a champion. Been there, done that. So I wouldn't expect anything less than that from him."

Warriors coach Steve Kerr added: "I thought we got some good looks against the zone but then, once they pulled away by 10 or 12, it was easier for them to run us off the line."

The Rockets will host game seven on Sunday, with the winning team to face the Minnesota Timberwolves who clinched a 4-1 win against the Los Angeles Lakers.

News from the NBA

• Popovich steps down as Spurs coach after 29 years
• Knicks see off Pistons to set up Celtics semi-final
• 'Disrespectful' dad criticised as Pacers beat Bucks

Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon praised Gregg Popovich after he stepped down from coaching the San Antonio Spurs to become their full-time president.

Popovich suffered a mild stroke in November that kept him from calling plays for the team the rest of the season, and he retires from coaching after 29 years on the job. Assistant coach Mitch Johnson, who served as interim head coach for the rest of the season, will take over permanently.

Before the Aces' preseason matchup against the Dallas Wings on Friday night, Hammon applauded Popovich, who took her under his wing in the years leading up to her tenure in Las Vegas.

USA TODAY Sports / Reuters

"That's who mentored me, that's who spent literally thousands of hours with me," Hammon said. "Watching him, I was there eight years. It's a lot of games, it's a lot of practices, it's a lot of coaches' meetings. So yeah, my heart's a little heavy for him because I know how much he loves it, but I'm sure he'll crush this role just as much."

Hammon was part of Popovich's coaching staff from 2014 to 2021 and was the first woman to lead an NBA team after Popovich was ejected in a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020. The former New York Liberty guard was also the first woman to serve as a head coach in the NBA Summer League and interviewed for the Portland Trail Blazers' head coaching vacancy in 2021 before being hired by the Aces.

She became the first WNBA coach to win a championship as a rookie and secured another title in 2022. Despite her ties to the Spurs and fans calling for her to replace Popovich, the 48-year-old insisted she is happy with her role in Las Vegas.

"I'm super happy where I am," Hammon said. "This opportunity for me, I couldn't pass on it. I bet on myself instead of, maybe waiting it out for a maybe [in the NBA]. I've enjoyed being back on the women's side. You guys know I'm effusive about my love for this team and being back in the women's game."

"If I were to ever make that jump again, you know it just has to be the right fit, right time, in front of the right people, with the right team," she added.

Watch Steph Curry console heartbroken son after Warriors' Game 6 loss vs. Rockets originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Like the rest of Dub Nation, Steph Curry’s young son Canon hoped the Warriors would eliminate the Houston Rockets on Friday night at Chase Center.

But after Golden State’s 115-107 loss in Game 6 of the first-round NBA playoff series, Canon wasn’t up for much talking.

After Curry tried talking to Canon, the 6-year-old buried his head in his mom Ayesha’s chest as his grandma, Sonya, looked on with an understanding smile.

Canon’s dad played 42 minutes in the Warriors’ tough postseason loss, scoring 29 points on 9-of-23 shooting from the field and 6 of 16 shooting from deep with seven rebounds, two assists and five turnovers.

It might take a while for Canon to cheer up after watching Curry and Co. drop the ball, allowing the Rockets to even the series at three games apiece after the Warriors held a 3-1 lead. But he doesn’t have much time to sulk — Golden State and Houston face off in a winner-take-all Game 7 on Sunday at Toyota Center.

Warriors face daunting, ominous Game 7 in Houston after fumbling 3-1 series lead originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO – Sections of the sellout crowd, hearts heavy and chins drooping, went streaming toward Chase Center exits with four minutes remaining, their beloved Warriors trailing by 17 and offering nothing to inspire faith in a comeback.

It didn’t materialize in Game 6 of this first-round Western Conference series, which ended Friday night with a 115-107 loss to the Rockets, evening matters at three games apiece.

And it only gets harder for Game 7 Sunday in Houston. Going on the road to do what couldn’t be done at home results in an adverse shift of the odds.

Not that the Warriors would even consider acknowledging that.

“We’ll be all right,” Jimmy Butler III said.

“We’re packing for a week,” Stephen Curry said. “Getting on this plane to go to Texas and, hopefully, go to Minnesota right after.”

Confidence in the face of a harsh wind can border on delusion. There’s no doubt that this, Game 6, on their floor, is a fumbling of favorable conditions. The anticipation was that the Warriors would have a spirited response to being thrashed in Game 5 Wednesday in Houston. Come home, ride the energy of a roaring crowd, close out this series and start preparing for the conference semifinals against the Timberwolves.

The Rockets took all of that away. They shot better, overall and from distance. They rebounded better, forced more turnovers, pulled more loose balls and had a sharp reply to every Golden State surge. They were vastly superior in their building and appreciably better in Game 6 in a hostile environment.

“They probably had 20 points off of broken plays and getting loose balls and kicking out for 3s,” Draymond Green said. “Get loose balls and we’ll defend them way better. To beat this team, you’ve got to make second and third efforts. Last two games we have not done that.”

Which is to say the Warriors, after taking a 3-1 series lead, tailed off their intensity in Games 5 and 6. This, folks, is not a winning mentality.

And yet, after a surprisingly sloppy first half, they trailed by only five (53-48) at halftime. A third-quarter awakening allowed them to enter the fourth quarter trailing by two points, 86-84, against a team with just enough young players to breed optimism among the Warriors.

Instead, the Rockets owned the fourth from the start. Fred VanVleet, coming off a mediocre regular season and an atrocious first three games, continued his torrid shooting, getting open against a disorganized defense to drain a 3-pointer while being fouled on a scrambling closeout by Gary Payton II.

“That’s on us as a staff,” coach Steve Kerr said. “We’ve got to make sure they’re matched up. They just threw it, and we didn’t guard Van Vleet when they threw it up the floor. He knocks it down, gets the free throw.

“Felt like a game-changing play because it was a two-point game, we’re right where we need to be despite having not played well and turning it over quite a bit.”

Six seconds into the fourth, the Warriors were down six. Five minutes in, they were trailing by 12. With 4:40 remaining and having missed 10 of their first 11 shots in the quarter, they were on the ugly end of a 106-89 score.

“We struggled that first six minutes,” Curry said of the final quarter. “You have to resist the temptation to rush and force shots, if it’s me or Jimmy trying to get good looks. But use the attention they’re going to throw at us, whether it’s me running around or Jimmy driving it, to make the defense collapse and swing and find open looks.

“For the most part, we got a lot of pretty good looks in the fourth. We just didn’t make ’em.”

Curry scored 29 points, matching VanVleet for game highs. Butler scored 27 points. They didn’t get much help from their teammates. Buddy Hield, Brandin Podziemski, Moses Moody and Quinten Post – all capable shooters – finished a combined 11-of-32 from the field, including 6-of-19 from beyond the arc.

The Rockets had squelched the Warriors, silenced the crowd and taken the air out of the building. Their zone defense is stifling Golden State’s offense, and their size and athleticism aren’t going to go away.

That’s why Game 7 is more daunting than Games 5 and 6. After seeing Houston five times in the regular season and six times in this series, the Warriors still are searching for adequate solutions.

“We’ve got to stop focusing so much on them and focus on us,” Butler said. “If we do that, then we’re going to be fine. We’re not going to sit here and act like we’ve been playing our best version of basketball because we haven’t. They’ve been doing OK, but they haven’t played their best version of basketball either.”

That, for the Warriors and their fans, is particularly ominous.

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Butler declares Warriors' confidence at ‘all-time high' for Game 7 originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

After Friday’s 115-107 Game 6 loss to the Houston Rockets, the Warriors’ 3-1 series lead is gone.

A lot of teams and players might start to panic in this situation — as well as Canon Curry.

But, as a new leader on an experienced Golden State roster, veteran star Jimmy Butler says he isn’t worried whatsoever.

After Wednesday’s Game 5 loss, Butler asserted, “We’re fine. Our confidence isn’t going to waver any.”

And despite another defeat Friday to force a decisive Game 7, Butler took it one step further — no matter how many 3-1 jokes the internet will prepare over the next 48 hours.

“[It’s] at an all-time high,” Butler told reporters when asked about the Warriors’ current confidence level. “It’s now, out of all times. It’s win or go home. It’s not wavering. We know how good of a team we are. …

“A couple of us have been here before multiple times. So, it’s on us to make sure we get it done.”

Likewise, Golden State forward Draymond Green, who has a 3-2 career record in Game 7s, displayed a calm assurance after another disappointing loss.

“It’s a little frustrating,” Green explained in his postgame presser. “Nonetheless, it’s a seven-game series. We know we can win there. Got to go get the win.”

Against a much less experienced Rockets squad, that mindset could be the difference in Sunday’s winner-take-all matchup. But the Warriors will need a better performance on the floor if they want that mental advantage to matter.

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