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The Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets have battled throughout this series and both teams head to a Game 7 in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. Tonight in Houston, it’s winner take all, and the Rockets have the home court advantage after clawing back from being 3-1 down to the Warriors. Golden State can erase the last two games with a win in Game 7 and they’ll be using all their veteran guile and moxie to do just that.
Let’s dive into this Game 7 matchup while recapping the series’ Game 6 and make a pick for tonight.
The story of Game 6 between the Warriors and Rockets can be summed up in the following phrase: “Anything you can do, I can do better.” The Warriors hung around for most of the game, but anytime the Warriors got close to the Rockets, Houston extended their lead back. The Rockets were led by Fred VanVleet, who hit 6-of-9 from behind the arc and put up a team-high 29 points for Houston. The combo of Alperen Sengun (21 points) and Steven Adams (17 points off the bench) did a ton of work as well, with the Rockets scoring 42 points in the paint.
The Warriors sent Adams to the line a ton as he had 16 free-throw attempts to help close the gap, but for the Warriors, it was too little, too late. Only three Warriors scored in double digits, with Stephen Curry notching a team-high 29 points on 6-of-16 shooting from three-point range. Curry and Jimmy Butler (27 points) combined for over half of the team’s 107 points, with Moose Moody (13 points) accounting for the only other double-digit scorer from Game 6. The Warriors’ trio shot just 39.6 percent from the field in Game 6. None of the other Warriors helped with the heavy lifting on offense in a game where they needed all the help they could get, not just from their bench players, but from the crowd in the Chase Center, too.
Game 7 is imminent, and both teams need all hands on deck tonight. For the Rockets, it’s all about keeping the same intensity and effort from the previous two games after being down 3-1 to the Warriors heading into Game 5. For the Warriors, it’s about righting two wrongs by letting the Rockets get back into the series. That can all be erased with a win at least, but it will have to come on the road in Houston.
Giving the Rockets all the confidence in the world could prove to be the fatal blow for the Warriors, as the Rockets may have found a bit of kryptonite with playing both Sengun and Adams together, where the Warriors don’t have the size and presence inside to stop them. The strength of the Warriors was supposed to be their veterans and playoff experience, but as of late, it’s looked older and slower against the youthful exuberance of the Houston Rockets.
Heading into Game 7 from a DFS perspective, it will come down to whether the Warriors have fight left in them against the spry Rockets. They will need prolific games from their stars like Curry, Butler and Draymond Green. That sounds evergreen for sure, but it’s do or die in Game 7 and it bears repeating.
On the flip side for the Houston Rockets, it’s exploiting the size matchups inside with both Sengun and Adams, plus the veteran leadership of VanVleet and Dillon Brooks to guide the young Rockets.
For Game 7, we’ll look to Alperen Sengun to help lead this team. He’s averaged 20.5 points, 11.5 rebounds, and 5.3 assists in this series, so asking him to provide a combo in points, rebounds and assists as the most consistent stat-sheet stuffer on the Rockets is the best way to capitalize in DFS.
Kevin has been writing about sports since 2015 with a primary focus on fantasy football. His work has been featured on outlets like Matthew Berry's Fantasy Life, FantasyPros, Sports Illustrated, RotoBaller, Fantasy Alarm, and numerous other fantasy websites. As a native New Yorker now living in the Midwest, Kevin counts the Green Bay Packers, New York Yankees and Syracuse Orange as his favorite teams.