Golden State Warriors frustrated by Houston Rockets, Fred Vanvleet

San Francisco – The Golden State Warriors have two main tasks before playing the Rockets in a decisive match 7 Sunday at Toyota Center: do more perimeter to break the defense of the Houston area and find a way to slow down Fred Vanvleet.

Friday, the Warriors were poor in the two areas of match 6. They only made 15 of the 49 attempts of 3 points and saw Vanvleet exploding them for 29 points in a defeat of 115-107 against the Rockets in what could have been the last match of the season at the Chase Center.

Vanvleet collected nine points in a dominant fourth quarter, giving Houston a chance to close the series on its own floor and qualify for the semi-finals of the West Conference against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

“He was champion. Was there, did this,” said Rockets coach Ime Udoka about Vanvleet, who led the Raptors of Toronto in front of the Warriors in the 2019 NBA finals. “So I wouldn’t expect it to be more than that.”

Since he went 6-in-29 on attempts of 3 points in the first three games in the series, Vanvleet came to life, going 18 out of 27 beyond the arc.

Part of the success of Vanvleet is to take advantage of the Warriors’ strategy to focus more on the slowdown of Jalen Green. While Golden State has almost erased Green since match 2, when he had 38 points, Vanvleet, alongside Alperen Sengun, took over, presenting all kinds of problems for the Warriors.

“We love together (Vanvleet and Green) on the ground for this reason,” said Udoka. “They put one of the best defenders there. The guys really define screens, and our pace was better. So we get much more freedom. Wear them a little.

“(The Warriors) do what they do. They have changed the alignments a little so far. Sometimes he feels that they opt for defensive and then offensive alignments, and you can only have one of the two. Fred has been aggressive, and if they adapt with Jalen, he will also have a certain freedom.”

However, it’s not just Vanvleet. While the Warriors had a hard time finding a third goalscorer coherent Friday behind Steph Curry (29 points) and Jimmy Butler (27 points), the Rockets had four players with at least 14 points. Green collected 12 points on the shot of 3 out of 11,

“One thing about this team is that we are proud of our balance, having different guys who can attack according to the way defense reads us,” said Vanvleet, who played his 58th match in a career series on Friday. “So I just tried to take advantage of the opportunities when they come to me and get started and take photos when it’s rhythm.

“Obviously, we know who we play, but in the end, you just have to read the game as they keep and take what the defense gives.”

The frustration of the Warriors with regard to the defense of the Rockets area was never clearer than during the fourth quarter, when Golden State was 1 for 12 abyssal on 3 points attempts.

Udoka said communication has been essential for Rockets to take time and space of the Warriors on all open fire attempts. Vanvleet said everything is not always going as planned.

“Just attention to details, trying to find the shooters,” he said. “We have experienced certain things in the area, and we have a big on the back line, then we are transformed and flying.

“Half of time, we don’t even know what we are doing there. So I’m sure it’s hard to plan the match. But just flying, having effort, being physical. We know that the guys we want to limit their touches and their shots, make things difficult on them, create a rebound.”