San Francisco – It is not necessary to find far to find reasons for the Warriors to have bad blood with the first -round Rockets in the eliminatory series of the west of the team which begins in Houston on Sunday.
As a member of the Grizzlies, Wing Dillon Brooks of Houston sparked a blatant fault that broke the elbow of Gary Payton II during the Golden State championship race in 2022.
Warriors striker Draymond Green sadly launched Steven Adams in the ground during the 2016 qualifiers when the center played with Oklahoma City, and Rockets coach Ime Udoka was recently seen with Steph Curry in the April match of the teams.
It is therefore not surprising that staying cool and that collected is a major point of importance for the seventh Golden State to seed.
Friday morning at the Chase Center, the long -standing coach, Steve Kerr, said that the four -day rest necessary between Tuesday’s victory against Memphis and the Sunday’s force in Texas will help the team respect this mandate.
“The rest and the preparation that enter this area, I think it will help us to be composed and ready, because that is what it takes in the playoffs,” said Kerr.
To say that it could be easier than doing so given how Houston – fourth in defensive note (110.8) and at the top of an offensive rebound per game (14.6) – approaches the match against a team that she maintained within 100 points in 3 out of 5.
Kerr invoked the names of the other major coaches Pat Riley and Chuck Daly by discussing how his opponent plays.
The Rockets had no problem seizing, holding and daring the officials to follow the game with whistles when they beat the Warriors 106-96 on April 6. It is a tactic that these legendary coaches did not hesitate to use during the Kerr game days in the 1990s, and a style of play which is again more widespread in 2025.
The officials called only 18.6 faults per game, the lowest in the history of the NBA. Houston was whistled for only 19 years per match, while the Warriors were a little 19.2 per night.
“The match, this year in general, is more physical,” said Kerr. “They let go more, and all of this is part of the equation. This is not something we worry or don’t talk about. ”
The Rockets’ Game Plan to stick the Uber-Athlete Amen Thompson on Curry and that the native of San Leandro plays the man to man and the ball outside the ball contributed to the superstar of the warriors pulling only 1 in 10 and scoring three points.
No matter how seeded rockets n ° 2 decide to keep the 3-point shooting game of all time in the league, his Curry teammate believes that a bad shooting evening was nothing more than one-off.
“What I know is that they don’t hold him back at three points again,” said the great man of Warriors Quinten Post, before stopping for a beat and adding: “I know it for a fact.”
Kerr underlined Curry’s ability to play his teammates thanks to his elite understanding of spacing and positioning, and the second-year goalkeeper Brandin Podziemski said that the Warriors will seek to take advantage of his pace to keep a step ahead of the Rockets (52-30).
“Space, cut, transition,” said Podziemski. “Because they are really good when they mark and can install their defense in the half-habit and play with so much pressure.”
While the Rockets have their just part of experience in the playoffs, notably Adams, Brooks and the former Slayer Warrior Fred Vanvleet, no team of the League has a group that can match the post-season pedigree of Golden State.
“A factor for us is always the experience of the playoffs, and I mean, we have been there for a long time and the fact that Steph and Draymond and Loon are still there, 10 years later, is remarkable,” said Kerr, who also praised the perennial column Jimmy Butler.
And if Wile veterans are not enough, Golden State (48-34) is not above a little rough game too.
“By the way, we are also a very physical team, and we were very defensively in the playoffs by playing a physical game,” said Kerr. “So I greet all that.”
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