You can count on three things in this life: death, taxes and the Golden State Warriors beating the Houston Rockets in the playoffs.
Yes, the lead-up to the Warriors’ Game 7 victory was anything but straightforward. The Warriors went up 3-1 in the series only to lose back-to-back games, leaving their season on the line Sunday.
But the final result?
It was downright inevitable.
Old, battered, and on the road, the Warriors only trailed the Rockets for 12 seconds Sunday, winning 103-89.
Beating Houston in big games, after all, is what they do, even after all these years.
“Tonight was as good as it gets in terms of focus and the players executing the game plan and showing resolve for 48 minutes,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Game 7 on the road — if you don’t bring it, you’re going home, and our guys brought it.”
The Dubs are now five-for-five all-time against the Rockets in the playoffs. New Rockets or old Rockets, it doesn’t matter. The Warriors just have a deep dislike of that shade of red.
The Warriors beating the Rockets, then led by James Harden, in 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2019 was peak basketball. And it was a real rivalry — the kind that all others are compared to.
Ultimately, the Warriors’ dominance forced the Rockets to tear down their entire team and rebuild. Houston couldn’t beat the Dubs, so they decided to punt a few years and try again when Steph Curry and Draymond Green had aged out of contention.
“Surprise!” Green yelled four times as the Warriors left the court Sunday, six years after the team’s last Toyota Center tunnel celebration.
You might remember it: After the Dubs — down Kevin Durant — finished off the Rockets in Game 6 of the 2019 second round (the de facto Western Conference Finals), the Warriors celebrated as if they won the title. It was the ultimate prove-it game for both organizations, and the Dubs were victorious yet again.
I remember standing in that very same hallway, listening in to an impromptu media session from Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta.
“We’re gonna kick their a– at some point. I can promise you that,” Fertitta said.
That was 2,186 days ago, Sunday. The Warriors are still waiting on that whoopin’.
Perhaps next year is the year for the young Rockets, who earned some kudos with their fight to pull the series to seven games.
Perhaps not. Close doesn’t mean much in this binary world of professional basketball.
Close only gets you to a Game 7.
And that’s when it’s time to bring it.
The Warriors always do.
“It’s always fun winning in this city and winning in this arena. I saw Fred [VanVleet] made a comment earlier in the series that this ‘Ain’t that team,’” Green said. “It’s that organization, though.”
And while Harden — the ultimate Game 7 choker — is no longer around, his replacements (save for 22-year-old Amen Thompson) didn’t cover themselves in glory Sunday.
It wasn’t as if Curry was the one teaching them a lesson in the early goings — he had three points in the first half. (Though he did affect winning in other ways than scoring.)
Nor was it trade-deadline coup Jimmy Butler, either. He had eight at the break and looked as if he was saving his energy for the second half.
No, it was Buddy Hield who ended the Rockets’ season in Game 7, and he did it with a brilliant two-way performance.
Now that’s a surprise.
Yes, Hield channeled prime Klay Thompson on Sunday, knocking in an NBA Game 7-record nine 3-pointers (on only 11 attempts) and holding Rockets guard VanVleet — who had been killing Golden State the last few games — to 17 points and only 13 shots. Hield had two blocks and a steal in Game 7.
Butler and Curry came around late to seal the deal. Curry even hit a “Night-Night” — a celebration he hadn’t invented the last time the Warriors won a playoff series in Houston.
“I’m blown away by Steph’s competitive fight,” Kerr said. “At 37, doing this forever. Four rings. Gold medal. Everything he could possibly want in his life, he’s got. He has nothing to prove, and yet he’s going to come in and try to prove something every single night.”
Especially on the nights he plays the Rockets, it seems. Curry finished with 22 points — 14 came in the fourth quarter.
But between the best game of Hield’s life and Green’s vintage two-way performance—his first of the series—the Warriors controlled everything on Sunday. The Rockets didn’t have the gusto or the experience to fight through the formidable Warriors. If they couldn’t beat Hield and Green, they weren’t going to beat Curry and Butler in the final frame.
And to think: The Rockets and their fans finally thought they had the Dubs solved. They really thought this was their shot to take down the champs. The Warriors might have rope-a-doped them a bit, too.
But this was not the year. I don’t know if that year will ever come for Houston.
And as for those Dubs obituaries? They’ll have to wait just a bit longer to be published.
“One thing about this league: You’re never done proving who you are until you’re done completely. Finished,” Green, who turned in a virtuoso defensive performance and scored 16 points, said.
And these Warriors are not finished just yet.