In the fourth quarter of the tie-break, when Curry hit a three-pointer, when Curry assisted Hield in the bottom corner, he hit the eighth three-pointer of the game. Curry said goodnight to Houston, even though Houston had no one to sleep on tonight.
The Warriors' more playoff experience, the overall gap between the coaches of both sides, and the ability of top stars to influence the game determine the trend of the tie-break. And the young rocket on the opposite side made much more than one mistake.
When the 1-3 score turned into 3-3, the Rockets' double-high lineup put the Warriors in huge trouble. Kerr even reactivated Kuminga in this game, and when Adams came on, Kuminga followed suit, in Kerr's words, trying to break the game with Kuminga's shot.
Kuminga did get his chance, and he did prove himself, but it only proved that Cole was the right choice to abandon him. Kuminga's two appearances in both halves were terrible, with one turnover on 0-of-4 shooting, and no point.
The Rockets are certainly fine with Adams, but the problem is that he got on too early. Udoka was like a newbie who was eager to show off all his hole cards, and then was beaten to the ground by Cole.
Adams came on the court at 7:13 of the first quarter, and Udoka wanted to use the inside advantage to continue to extend the win. But the Warriors were trying to grab rebounds today more than in the first six games, and everyone was trying to protect the backcourt rebounds, and Adams came up and didn't have the desired effect.
On the offensive end, the Warriors' defense is trying their best to give the ball to Adams, allowing Adams' attributes to attack the black hole infinitely. The Rockets chose to strangle Curry, and the Warriors gave Van Jordan extremely high defensive treatment today, no longer giving him so many opportunities to make easy shots.
When Van Jordan was dumbfounded, when Adams stayed on the court to hurt the Rockets' offense, the Rockets fell into a poor offensive situation again in the first half. And at the same time, Buddy Heard stepped up and changed everything.
Hield played 16 minutes in the half, scoring 22 points and one assist on 8-of-9 shooting and 6-of-7 from three-point range. Hield made six three-pointers, and the Rockets made just two. Hitting six three-pointers in the half also set a record for first-half three-point shooting in NBA history.
The record for the most three-point attempts in the history of the Game 7 is nine, set by DiVincenzo in the playoffs last year. Hield also scored nine three-pointers today, scoring 33 points in the game, shocking everyone.
The Rockets double-height and strangled Curry, a move that had worked before. But when a shooter like Hield began to hit three-pointers constantly, the Rockets' double-high disadvantage was infinitely magnified, and Udoka's heart was bottomless, so Adams only played 26 minutes today and lost by 9 points on the court.
So Hield's outburst changed everyone's expectations in the tie-breaker, and the Rockets still won the Warriors 14 rebounds in the whole game, but the lethality was not as good as in the fifth and sixth games. The Warriors can allow the Rockets to have more offensive opportunities than they do, but they can't afford to lose a lot of points on the inside, allowing the Rockets to score a lot of easy points.
As the Rockets' offense moves away from the box, they move away from the win step by step. Although Shin Kyung still had 21 points and 14 rebounds today, it can be said that he played the softest game since the beginning of the playoffs.
After he failed to challenge his dream several times, he began to play more and more outside, constantly shooting those deformed shots, and there was no accuracy at all. I would like to see Shin Kyung take a tougher stance after encountering the strong confrontation of Dream Chasing, but it is disappointing that he chose to avoid the fight today.
Jalen Green is still playing steadily, and it looks like his G2 outburst is more of an accident. He lost his shooting accuracy, his shooting confidence, and his ability to make damage in this series, and he could only score some points on the transition offense and play like a role player.
Of all his disappointing shots today, the most disappointing thing for me was that he started the last quarter, when he faced Hield, he didn't choose to attack, but turned to Shen Jing, who was chasing dreams and defending, and then Shen Jing almost threw a three-no.
In front of Jalen Green, Hield's defensive intimidation reached the pinnacle of his career, which may be why Kerr insisted on putting him in the starting lineup. Hield's poor defense is also relative, when you don't dare to play alone in the face of Hield, how can Hield talk about poor defense.
Did Hield defend poorly today? His defense was fantastic. In the middle of the fourth quarter, he single-handedly blocked Shin Kyung, and then steals VanVleet in the next round, and these two rounds, combined with his follow-up three-pointers, killed the suspense of the series. This shooter, who is nicknamed the smallest in the heart, proved himself on such a grand stage as the tie-break.
The Rockets pinched Curry in the first three quarters of the game, and the experience of pinching Curry was absolutely sufficient in seven games. But at the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Rockets suddenly used Jabari Smith Jr. to defend Curry for a single round, and Curry scored inside.
In the next round, the Rockets used Amen to defend Curry alone, and Amen had a problem with his calf at this time, and Curry stepped back and pulled away to hit a three-point shot. What was originally an 8-point margin widened to 13 points after Curry scored five points in a row. Successively changed two people to defend alone, and it is not difficult to see that this is Udoka's strategy, and then Curry played it as a turning point in the game.
Never underestimate a player like Curry, just because he's been caught in the middle of the game doesn't mean he's going to be silent for the whole game. As long as you show a flaw, Curry can kill with one blow. The last time he grabbed seven, he took 38 shots and scored 50 points, and Curry, who only scored 22 points tonight, is still terrible.
So, the Rockets lost their fifth-round series with the Warriors in a decade, and since the beginning of the 14-15 season, the Rockets have never beaten the Warriors in the playoffs, and the Warriors have beaten the Rockets in three periods, from Harden leading the team alone, to the peak Rockets in the light bulb period, and now the Youth Army Rockets.
Warrior thisDamoclesThe sword has been hanging above the rocket's head like this, making the rocket like a fish in the throat and keeping the rocket awake at night. The Rockets dreamed of beating the Warriors, who were the second seed this year and the Warriors were a play-in tournament team, but still, the outcome hasn't changed. This may be the last chance for the Rockets to beat Curry in the playoffs, and they just missed it.
Someone always tells you that there is no mountain in the world that cannot be climbed, but perhaps only you know that the most insurmountable mountain in the world is hidden in your heart.