HOUSTON – Draymond Green didn’t set the tone when he stayed vertical and contested Houston Rockets center Alperen Sengun’s attempt at a left-handed hook shot on the opening possession Sunday night at the Toyota Center.
Or when he forced Sengun into a travel after grabbing his own rebound off that miss. Or when he set a screen for Steph Curry the first time the Warriors had the ball, cut to the basket and finished a wide-open layup. Or when he jumped to stuff Jalen Green at the rim on the Rockets’ second possession. Or when he followed that with a 3-pointer at the top of the arc to give the Warriors a 5-0 lead in the first 71 seconds.
Standing in front of his teammates and coaches and other members of the organization, Green planted his flag the night before the Warriors’ 103-89 Game 7 win Sunday, making a plea that everybody could count on him with the season on the line.
“Draymond set the tone last night at the team meeting,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr revealed.
The Warriors’ voracious vocal leader owned up to letting the team down in the Warriors’ Game 6 loss at Chase Center, setting the tone in the wrong way by getting called for an unnecessary flagrant foul just over three minutes into the first quarter. His poise was wiped away from that point on. He’s the 13-year NBA veteran who has four championship rings to his name, yet the young Rockets took him out of his game and erased his mental edge.
Green was embarrassed by his Game 6 performance and what he gave to the game of basketball in that loss. Draymond had heart-to-heart conversations with the people he loves the most following Friday night’s loss in the lead up to Game 7.
His wife. His longtime trainer and close personal friend, Travis Walton. His college coach, the legendary Tom Izzo, and even his barber. They were all there for him, but it was more so about the message Green was sending than what he was hearing on the other side.
Pouting outweighed production, and Green was dying to get back on the court to prove himself yet again. He tried to defer to Curry and Jimmy Butler in giving a pregame speech, but they, too, knew the group needed to hear from him more than anybody else.
“Most importantly was calling myself out,” Green said. “You can’t go into a Game 7 expecting guys to rally off the game we had before and not address it. So I wanted to address that, number one. And then secondly, tell everybody else what we needed, which was a togetherness like no other. In our huddles, together – trusting and believing.
“I thought it was much needed. But as much as I think this team needed it, I feel like I needed it for myself even more. You got to be accountable. You can’t be a leader and not be accountable. You call other guys out when their s–t stinks, then you better say when yours does too. That’s what I tried to make a point in doing.”
The 16 points Green scored were one more than he had in the Warriors’ previous two games combined. Green was a game-high plus-18, making all four quarters a living hell for Sengun, who had 21 points and 14 rebounds but was a game-low minus-12. Sunday marked Green’s sixth Game 7, all with Curry by his side, who looked to have a slow shooting night until the fourth quarter began.
His impact was about so much more.
Curry didn’t score a single point in the first quarter. He only had three going into halftime because of a long 3-pointer he made with 33 seconds left in the second quarter, and eight going into the fourth quarter. Points weren’t his goal. Reducing turnovers were.
As the Rockets grabbed, held and tugged at Curry for a seventh straight game, he continuously made the right play. The ball kept moving when the Rockets tried to blitz and double-team him, and still he only had one turnover in the first half and two all night. Despite his low scoring output, Curry was a game-high plus-16 in the first half, leading all players in defensive rebounds (six), assists (five), steals (one) and blocked shots (two).
“I think that’s a true definition of, like, I don’t even know what you call it,” Butler said. “Being the best player, being one of the greatest is that they impact the game in more than just scoring or shooting. To be able to guard, to be able to rebound, to be able to find guys when they’re open – it’s a hard job for him because he always has three people that are on him and he’s always making the right play over and over and over again. But we needed it.
“Then when it was time for him to make some shots, we needed it, and he came through.”
As the Warriors’ offense went ice-cold down the stretch of Game 6, Curry scored three points on 1-of-7 shooting. He was averaging only 4.4 fourth-quarter points for the series. This was Game 7, where heroes of the game rise above.
Curry scored 14 points in the fourth quarter Sunday, playing all but the final eight seconds, going 5 of 6 from the field and 2 of 3 from deep. Steph opened the quarter ISOing Jabari Smith Jr. and slicing through the Rockets’ defense for a finger roll. The next time down, Curry hit Amen Thompson with a step-back three, giving the Warriors a 13-point lead and making Rockets coach Ime Udoka call a timeout.
He jogged to the other side of the court, talking to Rockets fans who have seen this movie before. Game over, right then and there.
Curry now has beaten the Rockets in five playoff series, and became one of seven players ever to have three Game 7 wins on the road. Green, Butler and Warriors center Kevon Looney are also part of the list, but Curry is the only one to score at least 20 points in all three. He only needed three words to describe how Houston will remember him.
“I’m a winner,” Curry said.
That has been the story of Steph and Draymond since they became teammates 13 years ago. The competitive spirit that never wavers. The will to find a way to win, and the enjoyment in doing so. Curry hit Houston with his Night Night celebration after a late three by Buddy Hield, and Green waved goodbye to the few fans that remained when the final buzzer rang.
There they were going down the tunnel and back to the Warriors’ locker room together, Draymond sticking his tongue out and yelling “Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!” with Steph jumping up and down like a little kid at his antics. They’re so different in so many ways, and equally the same in giving the game everything they’ve got until it one day tells them there’s nothing left.
The tank is far from empty, and on to Minnesota they go.
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