Warriors credit meeting for sparking Game 7 win

HOUSTON -- At the end, after they vanquished the Houston Rockets for a fifth time in the playoffs in a decade, Stephen Curry found Draymond Green in a crowded Golden State on-court celebration and pointed toward the Toyota Center scoreboard.

Curry and Green had talked about limiting the Rockets to under 90 points. Together, with the help of Jimmy Butler III and a career night from Buddy Hield, the Warriors' star duo won their sixth Game 7 together, upsetting the second-seeded Rockets 103-89 to advance to the Western Conference semifinals.

Golden State will face Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday at Target Center. The Warriors started earning that second-round ticket with an emotional players-only meeting called by Green, Curry and Butler on Saturday at the team hotel not long after their plane landed.

An emotional Green admitted to losing his cool by committing a flagrant foul a little over three minutes into Game 6 and "pouting" too much after that.

"Draymond set the tone last night at the team meeting," said Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who joined the meeting later and was pleased to find out Green addressed issues he wanted to bring up. "Basically, he owned up to losing his poise in Game 6, and I agreed with him. I thought the flagrant foul was a tone-setter, and he knew it and so he talked to the group and said, 'I got to be poised and I have to be better, and we're going to come in here tomorrow and get it done.' And I think his emotional stability tonight, just his poise from the start, set a great tone."

Green opened Game 7 by forcing Alperen Sengun into a miss and then a traveling violation. Then, Green scored the Warriors' first five points and hit his second 3-pointer a few minutes later.

From there, Hield put together a historic first half. After going 0-for-4 in the Warriors' 115-107 Game 4 loss at Chase Center, Hield scored 33 points, including 22 in the opening frame. His six 3-pointers in the first half set a Game 7 record. He finished with nine triples, matching Donte DiVincenzo for most 3s in Game 7 history. Hield also scored the most points after going scoreless in his prior game in NBA postseason history, according to ESPN Research.

Hield said he was inspired and motivated by the players-only talk the night before.

"I thought his defense was tremendous tonight, too," Kerr said. "One of the keys to the game was Fred VanVleet only got two free throws. Fred has just destroyed us the last three games. He's had an amazing series. He completely flipped things with his play. Buddy did a great job on him. So, this was not just a lights-out shooting performance for Buddy, it was a two-way performance."

Hield's hot shooting helped the Warriors crack the Houston zone defense that stymied them in Game 6. Golden State took a 54-39 lead despite Curry missing seven of his first eight shots from the field. He had just three points until he buried a 3-pointer with 5:20 remaining in the third.

Curry had said his main focus entering Game 7 was to protect the ball at all costs. His goal was to have just one turnover after having five in Game 6. He finished with two turnovers but also found his shot, scoring 14 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter to go with 10 rebounds and 7 assists to beat the Rockets for the second time in a Game 7.

"That was one of the toughest defenses I think I've ever faced," said Curry, who battled through an injured shooting thumb. "The physicality that was allowed early in the series and then their commitment to just trying to take away all the patterns that we usually thrive off of and guard me in half court at times. It was wild.

"But just staying patient but still being aggressive was the difference. Tonight, I only had three points in the first half and five shots, but I'm trying to make the right play and soften them up, and eventually, you can make your presence felt scoring-wise, but everything else was about just trying to make winning plays."

Butler's message to the team in the meeting the night before was to get back to what he does best -- breathe confidence into his teammates with his swagger and calming play in the most tense moments.

"My message to my guys was I wasn't being who I was," Butler said. "In a sense of pumping confidence into my guys. I think that's a part of my leadership that I've learned and gained throughout my years of playing this game at a high level.

"I wasn't doing that for the first six games, so I wanted to make sure to let them know that I was going to show everything was going to be fine, we're right where we wanted to be and I think I got back to being who I'm supposed to be."

In his fifth career Game 7, but first alongside Curry and Green, Butler finished with 20 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists. When Houston got within 63-60 late in the third quarter, Butler buried a corner 3 that came out of a double-team on Curry. Then, Butler hit Green for a cutting layup and a floater to push the lead to 70-62 entering the fourth.

Curry, who has delivered so many playoff daggers against Houston in their five playoff series against each other, opened the fourth with a driving layup before getting a 3 against Amen Thompson to push the lead to 13.

"My message to my guys was I wasn't being who I was. In a sense of pumping confidence into my guys. ... I wasn't doing that for the first six games so I wanted to make sure to let them know that I was going to show everything was going to be fine, we're right where we wanted to be and I think I got back to being who I'm supposed to be."

Jimmy Butler on his message to Warriors

Anytime Houston got within striking distance, Curry and Butler fended them off while Green played winning defense on the other end.

Before Game 1, Curry told ESPN that he didn't know "how many more chances will we actually have at chasing a championship. ... Me and [Green] have been through every battle for the last 13 years. Obviously, we are trying to recreate that magic."

That magic is still alive after eliminating the Rockets again in the playoffs.

"We're thrilled," said Kerr, who was extremely complimentary of Houston coach Ime Udoka and the Rockets. "When I think back to the trade deadline, where we were as a team, I'm so proud of these guys for what they've accomplished to put us in a position, as Steph says, to play meaningful basketball and to give ourselves a chance.

"This is all you want every year. Do you have a chance? And we've got a chance with this group."