Point guard Stephen Curry went for a game-high 36 points, and the Golden State Warriors, despite missing injured Jimmy Butler III, rallied past the visiting Houston Rockets 104-93 to take a 2-1 lead in their National Basketball Association (NBA) first-round playoff series in San Francisco.
The Warriors’ Gary Payton II saved nine of his postseason career-high 16 points for a late run, and Buddy Hield bombed five 3-pointers to account for a majority of his 17 points. Rookie Quinten Post, making his first postseason start, snatched a game-high 12 rebounds for the seventh-seeded Warriors, who can go up 3-1 in the Western Conference best-of-seven series with another home-court win on Monday.
“This series, no game is going to be pretty,” Curry said on Saturday night after the game on the ABC broadcast. “You just kinda have to grind it out. We had 22 points halfway through the [second quarter]. You wonder, how are we going to score? You just stick with it and make the right plays.”
The Warriors learned after the pregame warmup that Butler would not be able to go because of a glute contusion suffered in the Game 2 loss at Houston.
“Everybody just stepped up and played for Jimmy,” Curry said. “Hopefully, he’s back soon.”
After the Rockets held the Warriors to 18 points in the first quarter, Golden State scored the final 9 points of the second quarter to get within 49-46 at the break and set up a tightly contested second half.
A 3-pointer by Dillon Brooks with 5:47 minutes remaining in regulation gave the Rockets their last lead at 84-83 before Payton, who went scoreless in the Warriors’ Game 2 loss, shockingly took over the game.
With his Hall of Fame dad watching from the stands, Payton gave Golden State the lead with a layup, with 5:27 to go, then added another layup, a 3-pointer and a dunk in a personal 9-point run that opened a 92-86 lead with 3:42 to go.
“Everybody has confidence. That’s the beauty of our team,” Curry said. “Gary was unbelievable – taking advantage of the double-teams up top, getting into the paint, finishing at the rim, the big three in the corner, obviously the defence … He’s been around, too. He was part of the championship team in 2022. He knows what it takes.”
Curry bottomed his fifth 3-pointer of the night, and Payton added a dunk down the stretch to help Golden State hold the visitors at bay.
Curry’s 30-point night was the 60th of his postseason career. He also found time for seven rebounds and a game-high nine assists.
“We’re not going to hold him to 3 points every time we play him. We have to understand that,” Houston’s Fred VanVleet said. “He’s one of the all-time greats. I thought our coverages were a little slow tonight. Some of the switching, some of the physicality, was a touch down from what we had it ramped up to last game.”
Curry and Hield each drilled five 3-pointers, helping Golden State outscore the Rockets 42-33 from beyond the arc.
Draymond Green contributed 7 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two steals and three blocks to the cause, while Brandin Podziemski added 10 points.
VanVleet paced the second-seeded Rockets with 17 points, and Alperen Sengun had 15 points and 11 rebounds. Brooks scored 13 points, Jabari Smith Jr scored 12 and Amen Thompson scored 11. Jalen Green chipped in with 9 points, six rebounds and a team-high five assists.
Nuggets slam dunk Clippers at the buzzer
In earlier games on Saturday night, the Oklahoma City Thunder, fuelled by 38 points from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, held off the Memphis Grizzlies 117-115 to complete a 4-0 sweep in their NBA Western Conference playoff series and become the first team to reach the second round.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are on the brink of advancing, taking a 3-0 stranglehold on their Eastern Conference series with a 124-87 blowout of the Miami Heat.
The Denver Nuggets levelled their Western Conference series with a stunning 101-99 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers, sealed by Aaron Gordon’s put-back dunk at the final buzzer.
Nikola Jokic air-balled a 3-pointer as the clock wound down, and Gordon leaped to catch the ball and released his dunk just before the red light came on the backboard. A replay review upheld the ruling and the basket allowed Denver to even the best-of-seven Western Conference series at two games apiece.
“You could say it was a lucky play, but Aaron is a big athletic man,” Nuggets interim coach David Adelman said. “He met the ball early. I couldn’t tell if it was good or not. I was preparing for overtime…
“That’s going to be on NBA TV someday and I’m glad we won the game. I’m glad it will be on Nuggets Day and not Clippers Day.”
Jokic had 36 points, 21 rebounds and eight assists as the fourth-seeded Nuggets bounced back from a 117-83 pummelling in Game 3 on the road.
Kawhi Leonard registered 24 points and nine rebounds, and Norman Powell scored 22 for the fifth-seeded Clippers.
“This was really big for us,” Gordon said. “We did what we came here to do, and that was get home-court advantage back.”
Game 5 is on Tuesday in Denver.
