HOUSTON – Houston faced the Golden State Warriors in the playoffs four times between 2015-19, and each time the Rockets were sent packing.
On Sunday night, the No. 2 seed Rockets return to the postseason for the first time since 2020 and will face their old playoff nemesis — Steph Curry and the seventh-seeded Warriors in Game 1 of the best-of-seven Western Conference series.
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While Curry, Draymond Green and Kevon Looney were around for all those battles with the Rockets, including wins in the Western Conference finals in 2015 and 2018, there isn’t a player remaining on Houston’s roster who played in even one of those games.
And these Rockets aren’t worried about what happened in the past.
“This ain’t that team,” Houston’s Fred VanVleet said.
Indeed.
Those teams were led by James Harden, whose trade demand sent the Rockets into a full rebuild that made them one of the NBA’s worst teams for three seasons. Coach Ime Udoka was hired before last season and Houston improved to 41-41 before making another jump this season to end the playoff drought.
“We’re not just happy to be here,” Udoka said. “We wanna obviously make some noise as well.”
These new-look Rockets have veterans VanVleet and Dillon Brooks, but rely heavily on a young core of high draft picks led by Jalen Green, Jabari Smith and Amen Thompson.
“They are the No. 2 seed for a reason,” Curry said. “They have played well all year long. They play a certain physical style of defense, and they are super athletic.”
The Warriors got the seventh seed with a 121-116 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday night in the Play-In Tournament to return to the playoffs after failing to make the postseason after losing the play-in last season.
Dillon the Villain
Brooks embraces the villain role for the Rockets with his aggressive play and piled up the league’s second-most technical fouls this season with 16.
In this series he’ll face Green, who also has a penchant for collecting technical fouls and was three behind Brooks with 13.
With the two of them facing off for potentially seven games, many expect there to be some fireworks. That led to Brooks being asked how many ejections he expects in the series.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m not going to get ejected. I’ll leave that to somebody else.”
Butler at the Line
Jimmy Butler had made 63 of 68 free throws in eight April games before missing six at the line — 12 for 18 — on Tuesday night. It marked Golden State’s first victory in the play-in rounds after going 0-3 in games played in 2021 and last year.
The knack “Playoff Jimmy” has for drawing contact and getting to the line has meant so much to the Warriors.
“Incredibly quick first step and crafty feel for the game,” coach Steve Kerr said. ”... He’s clearly one of the best iso players in the NBA and a lot of that efficiency just comes from drawing contact and so I can’t tell you how valuable that is for us, what it does for our team to settle the game down and setting our defense up. There’s a reason our whole season shifted when we got him, he’s that good.”
The Warriors were 23-8 in the regular season after acquiring Butler from the Heat.
Underdogs
The Warriors are the betting favorites and have been picked by many prognosticators to win the series despite the Rockets being a much higher seed.
Golden State last won the title in 2022 and two of its other titles came in 2015 and 2018 after they beat the Rockets to advance to the NBA Finals. Houston won its only titles in 1994 and 1995.
Udoka said the Rockets don’t care that they’re the underdogs in this series and can’t concern themselves with outside noise.
The Rebounding Factor
Golden State has allowed costly opponents offensive rebounds contributing to second and third chances in recent games. The Warriors were beaten 50-39 on the boards by the Grizzlies and 42-25 in a 124-119 defeat to the Clippers in the regular-season finale last Sunday.
Kerr has stressed “scrapping and getting to every loose ball.”
The Rockets led the NBA this season by averaging 14.6 offensive rebounds and Golden State was fifth with 12.5.
Kuminga’s Role
High-flying forward Jonathan Kuminga’s role has diminished since Butler joined the team. Sidelined by an ankle injury earlier this year, Kuminga didn’t play the past two games — though Green fully expects him to factor into the rotation against the Rockets.
“He’ll contribute. He’s great. He’s getting his work in. That’s all you can do in that situation is get your work in,” Green said. “And he’ll be meaningful for us in that series. I have zero doubt about that. I think the challenge for him is to stay mentally engaged, as it is for anyone in that situation.”
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AP Sports Writer Janie McCauley contributed to this report.
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba