Stephen Curry inserted the dagger with 2:55 to play and Buddy Hield twisted it in the hearts of the Houston Rockets on the next possession.
After three tries and a hard-fought Game 7, the Warriors are moving on, and while that became clear when Curry sank a step-back 3 to put them up by 17, it was only fitting that Hield was the one who put a bow on the 103-89 win Sunday night.
The corner 3 to extend the lead to 20 was Hield’s eighth of the night, and he would add one more before time expired to finish with a team-best 33 points on 9-of-11 shooting from distance.
“That’s what the game called for and he answered it,” Curry said.
“And if I didn’t throw him a grenade, he would have been 9 for 10,” added Draymond Green. “He made winning plays all night.”
True, Hield logged a season-high 37 minutes, took on defensive assignments against Fred VanVleet and Jalen Green and didn’t stop making 3s after halftime.
But in the first Game 7 of his career, Hield will be most remembered for his first half.
The Warriors entered the locker room up 51-39, mostly thanks to 22 points from a red-hot Hield. With the Rockets successfully stifling Batman (Curry) and Robin (Jimmy Butler III), Alfred knocked down six of his seven 3-point attempts before intermission.
“Buddy getting hot changed the whole game in the first half,” coach Steve Kerr said.
It’s impossible to know where the Warriors would be without Hield’s lights-out display in the first half, but Kerr said he “never wavered” over keeping him in the starting five.
The shooting bonanza came just one game after Hield was held scoreless while missing all four of his attempts from the field in a Game 6 loss. He scored four points in Game 5 and combined for seven — with one 3-pointer — in the first two games of the series.
His best game so far came off the bench, when he scored 17 in Game 3 and convinced Kerr to insert him into the starting lineup for Game 4. That combination — alongside Curry, Butler, Green and Brandin Podziemski — Kerr said, was “by far our best five-man unit of the series.”
Talking to Kevon Looney on the bench, Hield remarked on his spot in the starting lineup.
“Like, man, I’m so glad I’m starting tonight. I don’t know how it would’ve been coming off the bench because coming off the bench in a Game 7 would have been really hard,” Hield said. “So just starting and getting the jitters out. It’s a childhood dream. We all talk about Game 7, we all want to play in Game 7. But actually playing in a Game 7 and getting prepared for it, it’s one of the hardest things ever.”
This is Hield’s ninth season in the NBA but only his second taste of the playoffs. He was eliminated in four games with the Philadelphia 76ers last spring.
His first Game 7 wasn’t just one to remember, but one for the record books. His nine 3-pointers tied Donte DiVincenzo (with the Knicks last May) for the most in any Game 7 in postseason history, while his 33 points were the most by any player held scoreless the previous game.
Yet, his shooting wasn’t all his teammates cared to talk about. Hield helped contain VanVleet to just 3-of-6 from beyond the arc and Jalen Green to eight points total.
“This was not just a lights-out shooting performance from Buddy; it was a two-way performance,” Kerr said. “I thought his defense was fantastic.”
“The 33 points were great, nine 3s — incredible,” Green added. “But what he did on the defensive end was even more impressive.”
“He’s a tough cover, for sure, when he’s making shots, but he made so many right plays on the defensive side of the ball, getting the ball where it needed to go,” Butler said, paying his pal a rare compliment. “Buddy was really, really, really big for us tonight.”
The Bahamian’s easy-going personality has been a source of levity in the locker room, especially since Butler’s arrival, but he proved he was locked in for the most important game of his career. Sound familiar?
If there was such a thing as Game 6 Klay, could there be Game 7 Buddy?
“To have that shooter’s confidence that the game says shoot and let it fly and we’ll live with it. I’m happy for him because he works so hard all year,” Curry said. “Getting to know him this season, you see how much basketball means to him and knowing this is only his second playoff run, to have a game like that in a Game 7 … it’s pretty special.”