Preview: Strap in for game seven

Will Warriors blow another 3-1 lead?

May 04, 2025

This is it. An actual must-win game for the Golden State Warriors. While technically any game could be a player’s last, the looming end to this storied, historically significant era is quickly approaching.

One more shot at survival.

GAME DETAILS

WHO: Golden State Warriors at Houston Rockets

Series is tied 3-3

WHEN: Sunday, May 4th, 2025; 5:30 pm PDT

WATCH: TNT, NBCSBA

Embrace the hard

At some point, it’s bound to happen. The Warriors core is old. Stephen Curry has been in the league for 15 seasons. 12 for Draymond Green, and 13 for Jimmy Butler. The league has not been stagnant either, the teams are better, the young talent across the nation has begun the relentless transition of the league. The old guard and dying out. Jalen Green and Alperen Sengun have only been in the NBA for three season, part of the “new guard” era for a Houston Rockets franchise that has completely rebuilt and re-entered the playoffs after the departure of James Harden. The Warriors? Pretty much the same old faces (plus Jimmy).

The optics over these past two or three games has not been great. After getting played off the floor in game five, the Warriors entered game six going small: Curry, Payton, Hield, Butler, and Green. Playing small, with Green at center has long been the Warriors’ secret sauce. It didn’t work. That lineup was minus four to start the game. In the fourth quarter, the well was dry, the shots not falling.

The Warriors haven’t tried everything yet - as Jonathan Kuminga was kept on the bench by Kerr’s tightened nine-man playoff rotation. Up till now, heck, even still with the season teetering on the precipice, fans and the team alike have been waiting for yet another miracle; From Curry, probably, but at this point, help from anywhere would be appreciated. Curry talked about the familiar challenges, while reminding us all that this is hard. It's supposed to be hard.

“It’s always been hard to win,” Warriors star Steph Curry said. “Like, don’t get that twisted … winning is hard. Sustaining it is hard. There are different challenges of figuring out a team that’s trying to take you out of your rhythm or your patterns or whatnot. You’re playing against a really good team. If you want to win at the highest level, you have to embrace the hard. Whether that’s the physical challenges of doing it at this stage of your career, or whether it’s because you’re playing a good team.”

Though it started within reach - with Golden State down just two points to start the fourth quarter - the Rockets would go on to stretch the lead all the way up to +17 (their largest of the game) in the final frame. It didn’t feel like a normal loss, there was an extra solid thud as this loss hit the gut.

It still feels like Golden State is flummoxed by a modified zone defense - the infamous box and one. The Warriors are struggling against the zone defense for all of the classic, well documented reasons.

Historically, the secret sauce answer of going small has been the response. But this roster doesn’t seem to have the sharp edges needed to slice into the defense. Butler is banged up, Curry is drawing ridiculous amounts of defensive attention (aided by the NBA apparently allowing grabbing as a valid form of off-ball defense). There’s no one else that is punishing the Rockets’ defense. Which, t0 be fair, is definitely a very, very good defense. Fast, big and athletic, and running a well thought out scheme.

This could be it. The window is palpably closing on this era of the Warriors, but maybe tonight won’t be the final gasp before it clicks shut. Can Curry and Butler pull some magic out, or will some of the role players finally manage to outplay Fred VanFleet?

Will the Warriors stay small, or go big and try to match up more directly against the Rockets’ strength?

One more time, to stay alive!

OPEN UP THE ROTATION!

Sure, Steve Kerr knows way more about basketball than I do, but I would humbly suggest that it’s time to open up the drawer of options and try something else. I was texting with some old friends about this game, and there’s a disarming sense that Fed VanFleet and the Rockets are too much of a problem for the Warriors.

The answer to a zone is to attack the seams. The problem is that no one besides Butler seems able to make the Rockets pay

Hield scored 32 points between the Warriors’ wins in Games 3 and 4, but he has scored only 11 points the other four games. Brandin Podziemski and Moses Moody both have low overall field goal percentages for the series but are shooting in the high 30s from deep. They’ll be left open, and they’ll have to make the Rockets pay, as Podziemski did in Game 4 and Moody has in the clutch earlier in the series.

Kuminga could be another answer, but whew… the irony. He didn't play in the play-in game, and has been glued to the bench. The move from DNP - coach's decision to helping save the season would be quite the redemption arc for the soon-to-be free agent.

In the last game, the Warriors opted for a defensive substitution by benching Hield. But that caused cascade impacts as the non-Curry starters went 3 of 18 from deep. Yes, the Rockets defense had a lot to do with those numbers - but why not give the deeper bench another look?

Kerr said “everything's on the table.” I agree. It's time to go all out.

Prediction

Wear your lucky jersey. Enforce all superstitions and pray to anything that you think may help, because this will be a tough one. I think Kuminga plays, and he helps the Warriors win. We need big games from Curry and Butler, and a more poised Draymond Green, but it's possible. A few words from Jimmy to get all of us in the right frame of mind for today:

“We were ready to compete tonight," Butler said. "Things didn’t go our way. We’re going to be ready to compete on Sunday, and we’re going to make the game go our way.”

Manifesting the win!