If you had told someone who had watched Games 5 and 6 of the Warriors-Rockets first-round series that in Game 7, on the road, that Golden State would be up by 12 at halftime with Stephen Curry having just three points, you would’ve been laughed out of whatever room you happened to be standing in.
But that’s what happened. Curry didn’t make his first shot until there were 33 seconds left in the first half, and somehow the Warriors were, indeed, up by 12 against a Rockets team that had not just beaten them, but had outright dominated them the previous two games.
How did this happen? A couple things. The Warriors took care of the ball, committing just seven turnovers (big props to Curry for managing this game in such disciplined fashion even when he couldn’t get his own offense going). They played incredible defense; huge props to Steve Kerr for waiting until he really needed to throw a wrinkle at the Rockets to unleash a zone. The young and shooting-compromised Rockets had no chance of reacting to that on the fly and they couldn’t make a thing.
But mostly, Buddy Hield played the game of his professional life. Hield poured in six 3-pointers en route to 22 first-half points, accounting for nearly 50% of Golden State’s offense through the first two quarters and what could only be described as a sigh-of-relief halftime margin.
Hield wasn’t done. He scored 11 more points in the fourth quarter to give him 33 for the game on nine 3-pointers, that mark tying Donte DiVincenzo’s NBA record for the most ever in a Game 7.
Hield basically did chest compressions on a Warriors offense that had flatlined over the previous two games. The 42-footer he hit to beat the first-quarter buzzer felt like it finally brought Golden State back to life. It still wasn’t a typically comfortable offensive showing for the Warriors, but somebody had to make the Rockets pay for all the attention they were paying to Curry.
Jimmy Butler seemed like the man for the job, and while he wound up with 20 points, he wasn’t as aggressively looking to score, particularly early, as you would’ve thought he needed to be. Moses Moody looked totally overwhelmed by the magnitude of the moment, badly missing all five of his shots. Jonathan Kuminga was a zero. Gary Payton II didn’t play because he was sick. Brandin Podziemski missed six of his seven 3s. Draymond Green stepped up big on both ends, but also missed six of his eight 3s.
But then there was Buddy, almost single-handedly carrying the scoring load until Curry was able to flip the switch with 19 second-half points. Hield has been up and down all season for the Warriors. He started on fire, then went cold for months. He’s moved all around the rotation, at times damn near losing his spot altogether. It’s a perfect testament to the confidence of a world-class shooter. He stays ready. He doesn’t hesitate.
Imagine the stones it takes, after missing 12 of your last 15 3-pointers in the series and all six over the past two games, to come into a Game 7 on the road firing away like you’ve been on a heater all along. Remember, Hield fell completely out of the rotation for three playoff games with the 76ers last year. Isn’t that funny how you put him alongside Curry and Green, and now Butler, and the absolute best version comes out of him at a time when the margin for error had shrunk to nothing.
“I thought his defense was tremendous tonight,” Kerr said of Hield. “One of the keys to the game was Fred VanVleet only got two free throws. Fred just destroyed us the last three games … and I thought Buddy did a great job on him and on [Jalen] Green (who only managed eight points on eight shots). So this was not just a lights-out shooting performance from Buddy. It was a two-way performance.”
So now the Warriors get the Timberwolves in the second round, and they will pose a lot of the same problems that Houston did for the Warriors. Minnesota is also an extremely athletic and physical defensive team that has the ability to overwhelm the Warriors on the offensive glass. but on top of that, they have the superstar scorer in Anthony Edwards that Houston still lacks.
So it’s going to be another fight. It starts Tuesday, so not much rest for the aging Warriors. But hey, they’re alive and into the second round of the playoffs. That’s all a team that was under .500 at the trade deadline can ask for, and they have Buddy Hield to thank for a big part of it.