Copy Link Icon
Warriors vs. Rockets: Game 7 Live Updates, Score and Highlights for 2018 NBA Playoffs
Golden State Warriors vs Houston Rockets
Houston, TX
Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry combined for 61 points and 15 assists to lead the Golden State Warriors past the Houston Rockets 101-92 in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals. Golden State won the series 4-3 and is headed back to the NBA Finals, where the Cleveland Cavaliers await for the fourth straight year. Klay Thompson chipped in 19 points for the Warriors, who benefited from Houston's historically horrid shooting night. The Rockets finished 7-of-44 from three-point line, including a 4-of-25 mark by James Harden and Eric Gordon.
NBA: Cleveland have defeated Boston by eight points in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
IT’S happening again. For the fourth consecutive season Golden State will meet Cleveland in the NBA Finals after the Warriors survived an epic Western Conference Finals against the Rockets with a 101-92 game seven win.
Houston faced the challenge of winning without star guard Chris Paul but stared down the reigning champs to lead 54-43 at halftime and leave Warriors coach Steve Kerr scratching his head.
“I was thinking of resigning,” Kerr joked post-game. “I walked in at halftime and said I didn’t recognise this team.”
But it started to unravel for the hosts in the second half as the champs made their move with a 33-15 third quarter — and the Rockets set a new NBA playoff record by missing 27 consecutive three-point attempts.
“I kept thinking that next one might go in,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni joked in his post-match press conference. “It’s just the way we play — and we didn’t have it.”
Kevin Durant (34 points, 11/21 field goals, 5/11 threes) and Steph Curry (27 points, 7/15 threes, 10 assists, nine rebounds) were enormous down the stretch as the Warriors overcame the biggest halftime deficit in Game 7 history.
Yo this man KD — Donovan Mitchell (@spidadmitchell) May 29, 2018
Kevin Durant scored 213 points versus the Rockets, a new Western Conference finals record. The previous mark of 212 points was held by Hakeem Olajuwon (1995) and Shaquille O'Neal (2002). — Justin Kubatko (@jkubatko) May 29, 2018
The Warriors outscored Houston 122-63 in the second half of the final two games of the series. “It’s amazing how long the NBA game is,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Forty-eight minutes, it lasts a long time and there’s so many opportunities to get yourself going as a team. And with our team, there’s just so much firepower, we’re going to get going.”
James Harden finished with 32 points for Houston but missed 17 of 29 shots, including 2/13 triples. Trevor Ariza (0/9) and Eric Gordon (2/12) were also awful from deep as the Rockets finished 7/44 (16 per cent) from long-range — their worst mark of the season. “We had a lot of open shots,” Harden said.
D’Antoni laughed when he was asked if the result made him doubt his team’s heavy reliance on three-pointers. “We know where we have to go, we feel like we’re really close,” D’Antoni added. “We’ve got the right formula.”
“That was a great team we just played against,” Warriors forward Draymond Green said. They gave us everything they can give us and they nearly pulled it out. We know we’ll see them again down the line.”
The Warriors will host the Cavs in Game 1 of the finals on Friday (AEST) — and be strongly favoured to win their third championship in the past four years despite the presence of LeBron James.
“It’s going to be a fun one, an exciting one,” Durant told ESPN. “LeBron’s playing — I don’t even know, I can’t even describe how he’s playing, it’s like next level basketball, so we got our work cut out for us.”
Unbelievable display of talent yesterday by LeBron and today by Steph and KD. Great time to be an NBA fan. — Manu Ginobili (@manuginobili) May 29, 2018
Rockets’ drought in the record books Houston’s run of missed three-pointers became as fun to follow as the game itself. The Rockets missed their first four attempts of the fourth quarter to take their run to 27 consecutive misses — a new NBA playoff record. PJ Tucker finally ended the rot from long-range, hitting a corner three to make it 89-79. David Aldridge interviewing the Rockets' 3-point shooters#RingerNBA pic.twitter.com/0emD8v7Skq — The Ringer (@ringer) May 29, 2018 But Kevin Durant (32 points), Steph Curry (27 points) and Klay Thompson (19 points) kept hitting shots to make it 97-85. Houston had a chance to close it to four points in the final minute but three-point misses from James Harden(2/13) and Trevor Ariza (0/9) left the hosts down 99-92 with 29.5 seconds to play. Share
Warriors dominate third Golden State has made its move time and again in the third quarter of games this postseason and did it again today with a 33-15 period that produced a seven-point lead. Steph Curry exploded — scoring 14 points to take his total to 22 — and Kevin Durant (23 points) also started firing as the champs flexed their muscles. For the third time in this series, the Warriors outscored the Rockets by 17+ points in the third quarter. — Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) May 29, 2018 Houston was horrible from long-range, missing 23 consecutive three-point attempts after starting 6/14 from deep. Trevor Ariza (0/7), James Harden (2/11) and Eric Gordon (2/10) were the chief culprits as the Rockets’ offence fell apart. The Rockets need to chill the hell out with some of these shots. They're totally out of control on offense and those misses are leading to long rebounds for Golden State to turn into transition offense. — Kevin O'Connor (@KevinOConnorNBA) May 29, 2018 Share
Rockets soar in second Houston continued to punish Golden State for its turnovers and poor rebounding in a 30-24 second quarter. Clint Capela (14 points, 7/8 shooting) and Eric Gordon (14 points) took over the scoring load from James Harden (16 points, four assists, four rebounds, four steals) as the hosts took control. PJ Tucker was enormous with seven points and five offensive boards. The Warriors would have trailed by more if not for Klay Thompson (12 points). Kevin Durant (13 points) and Steph Curry (eight points) hit shots late in the stanza to reduce a 15-point deficit to 11 at halftime. Warriors: 3/8 on free throws, 10 turnovers, 11 offensive rebounds allowed, Gordon goes to coast to coast w/ less than 5 seconds left in a quarter for the second straight game. Absolutely embarrassing half. Rockets just want this game more right now, are playing smarter. — Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) May 29, 2018 Share
‘One of the worst quarters we’ve ever played’ Warriors coach Steve Kerr produced an extraordinary outburst after his team’s underwhelming start to Game 7. The reigning champs shot poorly, turned the ball over and coughed up too many offensive rebounds to trail 24-19 after the first quarter. “One of the worst quarters of basketball we’ve ever played and we’re only down five points,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr told TNT. “So if we can get our act together we’ll be fine.” Game 6 star Klay Thompson picked up three fouls inside the first four minutes and was forced to take an early seat. It left Steph Curry, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green to carry the offensive load for the Warriors but they shot a combined 3/14 from the field for 13 points. James Harden needed just six shots to better that with 14 points of his own as he nailed both three-point attempts and hit 4/5 free throws. Without injured guard Chris Paul, the Rockets dusted off veterans Ryan Anderson and Joe Johnson in the first stanza, although neither attempted a shot. Share
Why Kyrie Irving missed game seven Kyrie Irving wasn’t just missing from the Celtics bench Sunday night — he wasn’t even at the game. Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge explained Irving’s surprising absence from the Celtics’ 87-79 Game 7 loss to the Cavaliers, saying the injured guard missed the tilt because he had deviated septum surgery. He had been at a lot of the Celtics’ previous 18 playoff games. “Kyrie had a deviated septum, had some surgery on that, and so I don’t think he wanted to be seen,” Ainge said. Irving’s agent, Jeff Wechsler, told ESPN that the star guard wanted to watch the game but wasn’t allowed to fly due to surgery. “It was a residual from the facial fracture he had earlier in the season,” Wechsler said. “He had the knee surgery, and now he’s taken care of this sinus surgery, so he will be all set going forward.” Irving had suffered a fracture in November that required him to wear a mask. The former Cavaliers star’s no-show irked ESPN analyst Mark Jackson during the broadcast, and he torched Irving for not sitting on the Celtics bench during the tilt. “He is so valuable to this franchise,” Jackson said. “You never know what he sees that a coach does not see. If he’s just at home chilling or somewhere not important, to me, that’s a problem. I would much rather have the great Kyrie Irving in the building. This is Game 7.” Fellow injured Celtics Gordon Hayward and Shane Larkin were both on the bench Sunday. “I want him here all the time,” Jackson said about Irving. “He’s too valuable. As a matter of fact, he’s more important than an assistant coach to me.” Irving didn’t figure in the Celtics’ Eastern Conference finals run due to complications from knee surgery which ended his season in mid-March. The team said at the time that Irving would need four to five months for a full recovery. — New York Post Share
Baynes delivers inspiring locker room speech Aron Baynes had a positive message for his young, defeated Boston Celtics squad after they were eliminated from the NBA Playoffs by LeBron James’ latest superhuman effort. In a post-game address to his teammates, Baynes recalled how he was on the San Antonio Spurs side who lost a heartbreaking game seven in the championship series to the James-led Miami Heat in 2013. The loss did not weaken the Spurs, featuring All-Star Tim Duncan and fellow Australian Patty Mills, but made them stronger and the next year they comprehensively beat James and the Heat 4-1 to win the title. “I told the team the 2013 Spurs lost a game seven and it galvanised the group,” Baynes said on Monday. James played all 48 minutes of Sunday night’s Eastern Conference game seven 87-79 victory in Boston and had a monster 35 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists. The Celtics had led for most of the game, but wilted down the stretch. The Cavs won the series 4-3 and will play the winner of the Western Conference Finals between the Houston Rockets and Golden State Warriors. That series will be decided on Monday (Tuesday AEST 11am) in a game seven in Houston. The Celtics overachieved this season. They were not given much of a chance after All-Stars Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward suffered season-ending injuries. Coach Brad Stevens, however, rallied his team, led by NBA Rookie of the Year candidate Jayson Tatum and a young core of players — including Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown and Terry Rozier — stepped up to support Baynes and All-Star forward Al Horford to make the playoff run. Baynes was on a relatively cheap one-year $US4.3 million ($5.7m) contract with the Celtics and now becomes an unrestricted free agent. His playoff form will likely result in new multi-year contract offers from rival teams, putting him alongside the deals Boomer teammates Joe Ingles (four- year $US52 million with the Utah Jazz) and Mills (four-years $US49 million with the Spurs) pocketed last year. Baynes is open to returning to Boston. “I would love to be a part of it in the future,” Baynes said. Baynes also revealed he broke his nose in Friday’s game-six loss to the Cavaliers and will have to undergo surgery. — AAP Share
