NBA Playoffs: Round 1 - Rockets vs Warriors

Written By: Aaron Allen

​The NBA Playoffs are here, and we have our 2nd and 7th seed matchup in the western conference set already. The 2nd seed Houston Rockets vs the 7th seed Golden State Warriors.

The Golden State Warriors are coming off a good season themselves going 48-34. The Warriors had an unfortunate end to their season as they dropped from the 5th seed to the 7th seed taking 2 pivotal losses to the Spurs and Clippers. Coming off those losses the Warriors could not afford to miss a beat as they needed to play the Memphis Grizzlies to advance into the playoffs as the number 7 seed. Jimmy Butler had a stellar night leading the team with 38 points on 12-20 shooting, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists. Right behind him of course is Stephen Curry with 37 points on  9-22 shooting and 6 of those shots coming from three, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists. Another notable performance would be coming from Draymond Green with 10 assists that game. This and the rest of the Warriors performance was enough to get the win over the Grizzlies in a close 121-116 Warriors win putting them in the 7th seed spot going up against the Rockets. 

The Houston Rockets are coming off a great season going 52-30 putting them at the 2nd seed in a very competitive Western conference. This season the Warriors and the Rockets played each other a total of five times and the Rockets ended up winning the season series going 3-2 against the Warriors. In one of their meetings during the season, young up and coming star, Amen Thompson had a great defensive game holding Curry to just only 3 points throughout the entirety of the game which is unheard of! This defensive performance has people questioning how Curry will do this series and if the Warriors even have a chance at beating the Houston Rockets. 

Photo Credit: Toyotacenter.com

Although the standings don’t show it, this will not be an easy series for either team, as the Warriors have been on a tear ever since the addition of Jimmy Butler to their team. Both Jimmy Butler and Stephen Curry are known to tap into a different level come playoff time and it seems like it doesn’t matter what defensive scheme you throw at them, they will not be shut down or go down quietly. If you take those two, the rest of the Warriors squad who will no doubt give you 20 if you aren’t careful, and the whole squad's huge playoff experience, the Rockets can potentially find themselves in a little trouble against the Warriors. But this is nothing to take away from the Rockets, these young kids have been hooping! Alfred Sengun is having an amazing season. Jalen Green continues to show off his crazy athleticism and why he shouldn’t be taken lightly in this league. The entire rest of the roster are really great players, and they all just play really well as a team. They are definitely in sync. Another two notable players to mention are Fred VanVleet and Dillion Brooks. Fred has great Playoff experience, even Finals experience if they make it that far, and Dillion Brooks has recently played Stephen Curry in a 7-game series in the 2022 Playoffs. So, he knows what it is, and knows what it’s about when it comes to Stephen Curry in the Playoffs and can give guidance to Steph’s assignment who will more than likely be Amen Thompson. 

Looking at it from a perspective like this, this series will prove to be nothing short of amazing and competitive between the two, and it is really hard to say who will be the definite winner in this series. In my eyes though…Warriors in 7.