Scott Strazzante/S.F. Chronicle
Scott Strazzante/S.F. Chronicle
Scott Strazzante/S.F. Chronicle
Scott Strazzante/S.F. Chronicle
HOUSTON – Do not shove the Golden State Warriors into a time machine.
That’s one lesson the Houston Rockets learned Sunday night in a 95-85 loss to the Warriors in the opening game of their first-round playoff series.
It was a throwback game. Yes, the 24-second clock was operating just fine, but somehow the Warriors held the Rockets to 29.3 points below their regular-season average.
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Asked to explain, coach Steve Kerr said, “Well, they’re not a typical modern NBA team, in terms of spreading you out and playing fast and shooting a million threes. They’re kind of old-school, in many ways they’re in the image of their coach. Ime (Udoka) was as grinder as a player, he was tough and physical, and that’s what Houston is.
“In this series, you can see they know where their advantage lies, and it’s playing (6-11 center Steven) Adams a lot, sometimes playing him with (6-11 Alperin) Sengün, having everybody crash (the offensive boards). It felt like 1997 out there to me, completely different NBA game than what we’re used to, and we’ve gotta be ready for that, this is what this series is going to be.”
Draymond Green was 7 years old in 1997, but he can hop in that time machine and play old-school ball. Sunday he did that, leading what was one of the finest defensive efforts by the Warriors in their 11-year dynastic run. For perspective, there were 1,230 regular-season NBA games this season, and both teams scored under 100 in only 30 of those games.
Fred Flintstone was impressed with the Warriors’ defense, and it was led by the man who is one of three finalists for the league’s Defensive Player of the Year Award.
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That Green lasted the entire game was surprising to some. The Rockets play hard, push the bump-and-grind envelope, and they push Green’s buttons. If Vegas took odds on this, Green would have been the player most likely to get booted out for bad behavior, or to foul out.
Indeed, when he was called for a foul in the third quarter, leading into a time out, Green raged at the refs, until teammates steered him toward the sidelines, where he was met by assistant coach Jerry Stackhouse.
The way Green and Stackhouse described that moment, it sounds like they had a nice little chat. What it looked like: Two very large, angry men bumping chests while going jaw to jaw. Green settled down and went back to work.
What the Warriors lacked at times in the past was an effective Draymond whisperer, someone to throw cold water on his molten lava. Stackhouse, a sturdy 6-6 fellow, did that Sunday.
“He (Stackhouse) just told me, keep doing what I’m doing, ‘You’re doing a great job, we’re not worried about what’s going on out there, so don’t get so caught up in your emotions, stay locked in,’” Green explained.
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Part of the problem, Stackhouse said, was that Green was angry because several times when he jumped off his man to pick up a Rocket driving to the hoop, nobody was picking up Draymond’s man, leading to inside points and offensive rebounds for the Rockets.
“I knew Draymond has so much pride, and Sengün was getting some baskets, and we weren’t really kind of helping the helper, and I just knew those shots weren’t going to beat us. I just had to resettle him. … He takes those battles personal. He was like, ‘They gotta come help.’ I knew we were gonna tighten it up. The big picture, ‘Let’s not worry about those points, we’re keeping the (Rockets’) threes out of the game.
“Obviously there’s a mutual respect (between Green and Stackhouse), and there’s a lot of emotion in this series, and I know we need Draymond. I’ve seen him have some moments this year, but I think this is the time, ‘Man, we need you more than anything just to stay level, and not pick up any cheap fouls,’ and he did that.”
Green keeping his cool in the hottest game of the year, in sweltering, unfriendly Houston? Maybe that shows just how committed he is to this run.
It had to be a little bit embarrassing to the Warriors that they got outrebounded 52-36, including 22-6 on the offensive boards. That’s usually not part of a recipe for a win, but overall it was a brilliant defensive effort.
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“We didn’t give up any easy looks,” Green said. “We followed our defensive game plan, just made them take tough shots. … Held them to 39 percent shooting, 34 baskets, and 10 of them was on second-chance points.”
Since Jimmy Butler arrived, the Warriors have the league’s No. 1 defensive rating. Full credit to Butler, who brought his own brand of toughness to Golden State. But Butler knows Green is the quarterback of the defense, and he plays beautifully off Green.
“He’s the key to the defensive side of what we’re doing,” Butler said, adding, “He has the hardest job, he’s gotta go out there and battle with trees.”
It’s Draymond vs. the 1997 Rockets, and one game in, his time-machine trip is a success.
