Rockets STUN Warriors with late surge to force Game 7 | Game 6 Recap

Rockets STUN Warriors with late surge to force Game 7 | Game 6 Recap

The Warriors looking to close out this series against the rockets, but Houston was ready for liftoff. Fred VanVleet with the three, extends Houston’s lead 101 to 89. And they did not look back dominating this outing 115 107 is your final VanVleet a team high 27 points eight rebounds eight assists. Meanwhile Steph Curry you know dealing with that thumb injury put up a game high 29. But it wasn’t quite enough as Golden State shot 41% from the field 30% from three point range. But it was Houston’s defense that was the story of this one. We’re now joined by CBS sports NBA insiders Bill Ryder and John Gonzalez and well fellas, our Warriors in six estimations seem just to be just a tad bit off. But we’re headed to game seven in Houston after Golden State came up short. Well, well short in their closeout game. Bill, was this a result of Houston’s defense just suffocating the Warriors, or was this maybe just a poor shooting night for Golden State? Yes and yes. And by the way, our estimation that the Warriors are going to win this series could be way off too, because momentum Rockets look this Houston defense is remarkable. They hold the Warriors fairly impressive offense, especially since Jimmy Butler came into the mix to limited points again. If you look at the starters for the Warriors not named Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler, they combined for 13 points. Steven Adams on the other side of the equation for the rockets came off the bench for 17. So Stephen Adams outscored three of the Warriors starters all by himself. It’s a combination of things. I thought Steph looked a little bit off. There were certainly some open looks that Warriors players were able to get and weren’t able to knock down. And maybe that’s one of the differences between this Warriors team and the team. Three years ago that won a title, there were role players who would hit those shots. But I think it all begins and ends with this rockets defense. It was suffocating. It was outstanding. That’s how they made their hay all year. And full credit to them, they went into Chase center. They went into the Bay. They went into Steph’s home and they shut down that Warriors attack. And at a minimum that’s 50% because the rockets made it happen. Yeah. The rockets defense was fantastic tonight especially in the fourth quarter. And part of that was the Warriors weren’t playing well in the fourth quarter. With eight minutes gone in the fourth quarter the Warriors had five points. I thought and I think a lot of people in that building thought that once the fourth quarter came around, the Warriors muscle memory and the playoffs would just kick in, the rockets would fall off because they’re the younger team, they’re the less experienced team in. The Warriors have experience all over the court. And then instead here come the rockets. They got their biggest lead with seven minutes left and just kept adding and adding and adding. And Fred VanVleet we said before the game Kiana and Bill hey we need the rockets. Need somebody to really step forward and be the consistent scoring presence that maybe they’ve lacked for much of the season. Well that’s been Fred VanVleet not just in tonight’s game but the last three games. He’s been excellent in the last three games. And then Alperen Sengun was really good. And then you heard Bill talk about Steven Adams who you know, they tried to do the Hack and Adams thing. That didn’t work either. He played a season high in minutes 17 points. He had a steal three blocks. And you know what. Forget about just the numbers of the box score. He was fantastic. He was altering shots. He was keeping them out of the paint. The rockets dominated the points in the paint. I’m blown away by the rockets. They’ve had a fantastic season and now they’ve got the Warriors on the ropes. A lot of people me, Bill, a lot of experts pick the Warriors to win this series. Well we’ll see. Going back to Houston I’m sure that the Warriors aren’t feeling great about that. Yeah absolutely. And John you touched on it because we talked about how inexperienced that this rockets team was. And they need the guy to step up. But Bill how key has Fred VanVleet been just to even up this series to where we are now. Well John said it and we have said that and that is a reality. But here’s the thing Fred VanVleet is not inexperienced. That guy has won a championship, was a critical player in that Raptors team has been there and done that. And so in retrospect, isn’t hindsight beautiful? Wouldn’t that make it so much easier to bet on these games? In retrospect, it makes sense that if somebody was going to be able, as John said, to step up on the offensive end for Houston to really take the game by the horns, to hit those shots, to command the game from an offensive perspective for the rockets, it was going to be the guy who’s won a championship, who’s won a title, who hasn’t been overwhelmed. I thought it was really interesting. During the broadcast, they talked a couple times about how Jalen Green had told them, had had admitted, had talked about how he was nervous, how he was worried. This is one of their young shooters who’s capable of getting really hot, who can be streaky like VanVleet. The difference is that’s a young guy who hasn’t been there, done that. Fred’s been there, he’s done that. And the fact that he’s doing it again against the Warriors, in retrospect, it makes sense because this team, this rockets team may not have a title, a championship pedigree, but their leader does, their veteran does. And he’s bringing that out right now to very impressive effect. Absolutely. So now it’s win or go home. Back in Houston you talked about it a little bit Bill, but has momentum officially tipped in Houston’s favor after what we’ve seen in back to back performances. And these aren’t just, you know a couple point victories. These have been some massive wins for Houston. Yeah I mean I think it has I will say this as it impacts what’s going to happen when we get to a game seven, when you have a team that was down three, 1 to 1, a couple in a row to get there, when you have on the other side of the equation, Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler, I think the right analysis is this is just shoulder shrug I mean anything can happen. And it’s look this has come down to so many things and so many factors a game seven you throw everything you think you know out the window. John and I both covered A31 series collapse by this Warriors team back in 2016, when LeBron James and the Cavs did it. And at every step of the way, it felt like an impossibility. And I won’t speak for you, John, but covering that series when we got to game seven, I thought, okay, this is a nice run by the Cavs. But Draymond Green got himself suspended for a game and there was a game in Cleveland. The Warriors are going home. They’re going to close it out. And in retrospect I should have just shoulder shrugged and said we don’t know anything. We get to game seven. And I think that’s the reality. Yes, the momentum matters. It’s real, it’s a factor. But whether that’s what comes up on the roulette wheel of this game seven on Sunday or something else does, I think is anybody’s guess. Speaking of roulette, Vegas sees the rockets. They are two point favorites going into this game where we stand. John, are we looking at maybe this experience of this Warriors team maybe showing up when it’s win or go home, or are you riding the wave of what we’re seeing out of Houston? Yeah, bill is right. The correct analysis is shoulder shrug. Look, it’s a game seven. Anything can happen. Only 13 teams in NBA history have been down three one and come back to win. The rockets have had an incredible season to do it against the Warriors. The team with more playoff experience absent, of course, is Bill rightly pointed out, Fred VanVleet, who’s an NBA champion, and Stephen Adams, who’s got playoff experience, of course, and Dillon Brooks as well. But the rockets are, on the whole the younger team. That would be a supreme feat by the Warriors. Now, that said, the Warriors put their experience aside. There’s a couple of things that make me a little nervous here. They’ve been really sloppy with the ball in the last few games. 17 turnovers tonight leading to 22 points. You thought after the game five blowout what’s going to happen with Steph and Jimmy. They got rested. They’re going to play major minutes right. Well they did. They played major minutes. Both of them 42 minutes tonight. And they both scored the ball 29 points for Steph 27 for Jimmy. Well guess what. The rest of the offense was really clunky. It was hard for them to get offense outside of those two guys. That would make me nervous as well, as well as the fact that the three point shot on the whole wasn’t falling. The only shot 30% from the from beyond the arc. So man, like, yeah, on top of that the momentum they’re going back to Houston Rockets have home court. All of this stuff is set up for the Warriors really have to snap out of their funk from the last two games. And then the rockets can they get this thing across the line where they’ve surprised everybody all season long. They got the two seed. Nobody believed in them outside of Houston to win this series. It’s right there for them. History is against them, but everything else is really in their favor right now. Yeah, and John is right. Three one series leads getting blown are extremely rare. And last I checked Doc Rivers. He’s not coaching at all in the Warriors right. He didn’t sneak in there. He he’s a he’s a Doc Rivers shot that I’m just slipping into a conversation about two other teams. Doc rivers owns 25% of those of those blown leads. But but the Warriors do have one of them. I think my normal inclination again, shoulder shrug is my actual in-depth analysis. I think my normal inclination would be it’s in the margins. It’s near a coin flip. But I’ll take Steph Curry and the coin flip and perhaps excuse making for the Warriors incoming. Apologize to rockets fans if you feel disrespected by this. I do wonder and worry a little about a little bit if Steph Curry is feeling that thumb injury. If the tactic that’s been widely discussed about the rockets using that loophole to go after his thumb is impacting his shooting, we saw Steph at one point today. Grab that thumb. Felt like he got fouled on the follow through. Kind of looked at the ref and laughed. And so maybe I’m just making excuses for Steph. He has looked a little off. He has had a bunch of turnovers. Maybe it’s just the rockets defense. But I think there are going to be X factors that are really hard to gauge. And that’s always true in a game seven Steph just doesn’t look right. And again this is a really good rockets team. If Steph Curry is 80% instead of 95%. And that’s an if I think it could be a big differential I’m going to tell you just thinking about what Steph is going through with this say that is bothering him. And now you’re going into playing a game seven. I know I’m getting a little ahead of myself, but that does cause a little worry for me. And this is not me. Rockets fans jumping the gun here, but say they do make it to the next round. They’re a little older. I don’t know if that’s going to play into how that second round goes, but like you guys said, I’m just shrugging for this point. Bill writer John Gonzalez fellas, as always, thanks so much. And if you want more where that came from, you got to check out Bill and John on Beyond the Arc podcast. They’ll take you all around the Association throughout the postseason. Highlights, analysi

John Gonzalez and Bill Reiter join CBS Sports HQ to recap the NBA Western Conference 1st Round matchup between the Houston Rockets and Golden State Warriors.

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