SAN FRANCISCO — If you’re a Warriors fan seeking solace after the team failed to finish off the Houston Rockets for a second straight try Friday night, setting up a winner-take-all Game 7 less than 48 hours later, consider Stephen Curry’s perspective.
“I mean, thankfully we have another game to play. We did our work early in the series. Gives us some cushion,” Curry said after a 115-107 home loss that sends the series back to Houston on Sunday. “In February, if you told us we would have a Game 7, we’d take that all day long. How we got here, not happy about it. But we do have another opportunity.”
Despite their lower seed, the No. 7 Warriors grasped firm control of the series after taking Game 1 in Houston and going up 3-1 after Game 4. But two games later, the playoff-seasoned Warriors find themselves in the same situation as the pesky, young Rockets.
Win or go home.
“It’s a little frustrating,” Draymond Green said. “You get the opportunity to close out at home, want to do it. Nonetheless, it’s a seven-game series. We know we can win there. Got to go get the win.”
To Curry’s point, the mere fact that the Warriors are still alive in May would have hard to believe in February. Before their trade for Jimmy Butler III, they were on their way to an even lower seed, or possibly missing the playoffs entirely, while Curry longed to play “meaningful” basketball.
Well, it doesn’t get much more meaningful than Sunday.
One team’s season will come to an end; the other will hop on a flight to Minneapolis to begin the Western Conference semifinals on Tuesday.
“I like our chances,” coach Steve Kerr said. “I’ve seen what this group can do over the years. We’ve been in a lot of Game 7s, I believe, had a lot of success. Jimmy Butler is Jimmy Butler. He’s been in all of these games. He’s one of the clutch performers in the league, so, we’ll get ready. We’ll regroup, be ready to roll.”
Golden State has played four Game 7s since Kerr arrived in 2015 and won three of them. Curry and Green each have another game of experience from their playoff introductions with Kerr’s predecessor, Mark Jackson. Butler, with his notable postseason reputation, has split the four Game 7s he’s played in his career.
“Everybody will be excited. It will be hyped in there. It will be loud,” Green said. “Then the game starts and there’s just basketball.”
“Game 7 is not the hardest thing in the world,” Butler added.
That said, the Warriors have been in some memorable ones. The closest analog may be 2023, when they got 50 points from Curry and needed every last one to get past the Sacramento Kings. And who could forget the team’s shared Game 7 history from the 2018 Western Conference Finals?
“I think we’ve had one in that building before,” Curry said of the 101-92 win that saw the Rockets miss 27 consecutive 3-pointers.
“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. … You got to just embrace it, have fun with it, show up with kind of a killer instinct.”
The Warriors were riding high after Green’s game-saving defensive stop at the end of Game 4, and even after throwing in the towel five minutes into the second half of Game 5, they oozed confidence heading into Game 6 of a team that had been there before. After a second consecutive loss where the Warriors were outshot and outhustled, Butler was asked to assess the team’s confidence level heading into Game 7.
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“All time high,” he said. “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. It’s on us to make sure we get it done.”
On the flip side are the Rockets, whose core trio of Alperen Sengun, Amen Thompson and Jalen Green all crossed off playoff firsts this series but seemed unfazed by the Chase Center crowd Friday night. “Obviously Game 1 was full of jitters,” Fred VanVleet said. “Game 3 was similar being on the road for the first time.”
And, now, an entirely new beast: Game 7.
“It just feels slower. Most Game 7s are kind of rock fights. There’s a different vibe,” Kerr said. “There’s a nervous vibe with the home crowd. There’s just a sense of, All right, we’re finally here. It’s been two weeks. Both teams throwing haymakers at each other, all that. … It’s why people love watching them at home. Game 7s are special. They’re fun to be a part of.”