![\"Stephen](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/AP25125093352576-1746422742.jpg\")
Golden State Warriors\u2019 Stephen Curry (30) scored 22 points in Game 7 against the Houston Rockets [Ashley Landis\/AP]\nPacers shock No 1 seed Cavaliers<\/p>\n
Buddy Hield\u2019s 33 points allowed Golden State Warriors to knock out the Houston Rockets, while Indiana Pacers upset Cleveland Cavaliers in their second-round Eastern Conference series opener.<\/p>\n
The Golden State Warriors punched their ticket to the second round of the NBA playoffs, shaking off two straight defeats to grab a 103-89 Game 7 victory over the Houston Rockets.<\/p>\n
The Warriors were the last team to advance to the conference semifinals, which got under way earlier on Sunday, with the Indiana Pacers handing the Eastern Conference top seeds, Cleveland, a 121-112 defeat on their home floor in Game 1.<\/p>\n
On a Warriors team stacked with postseason experience, Buddy Hield \u2013 playing in his 11th playoff game \u2013 drilled nine 3-pointers on 11 attempts on the way to a game-high 33 points.<\/p>\n
Stephen Curry scored 14 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter as the Warriors finally frustrated the second-seeded Rockets, who were coming off two dominant victories and had visions of becoming just the 14th team to rally from 3-1 down to win an NBA playoff series.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of resilience,\u201d Curry said. \u201cEverybody stepping up. Everybody\u2019s been talking about our team the last two games in terms of our execution, our energy, all that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe blocked it all out and just understood we had 48 minutes to dig deep. Everybody contributed.<\/p>\n
\u201cBuddy Hield was unbelievable,\u201d added Curry after the Warriors lined up a second-round clash with the Minnesota Timberwolves, who ousted LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers in five games.<\/p>\n
Curry\u2019s first basket was a 3-pointer, with 33.3 seconds left in the first half.<\/p>\n
But Hield was on fire, making six 3-pointers on the way to 22 first-half points,\u00a0 and Draymond Green added 10 points to help the Warriors to a 51-39 halftime lead.<\/p>\n
They pushed the lead to as many as 15 before the Rockets battled back, cutting their deficit to three.<\/p>\n
Amen Thompson scored 24 points and grabbed nine rebounds, and Alperen Sengun scored 21 with 14 rebounds for the Rockets, but Houston made just six 3-pointers and trailed 70-62 going into the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when Curry came alive, opening the final frame with five straight points. Jimmy Butler had six points in a 12-0 Warriors run that took their lead to 20 points, with 2:31 minutes remaining.<\/p>\n
Butler finished with 20 points, and Curry said his arrival from Miami in February was key to Golden State\u2019s late playoff push.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us to build chemistry on the fly and build trust on the fly and perform like we did in a game seven, it means the world,\u201d Curry said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, mission accomplished \u2013 step one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Golden State Warriors\u2019 Stephen Curry (30) scored 22 points in Game 7 against the Houston Rockets [Ashley Landis\/AP]
\nPacers shock No 1 seed Cavaliers<\/p>\n
In Cleveland, Andrew Nembhard drilled five of Indiana\u2019s 19 3-pointers on the way to a team-high 23 points. Meanwhile, Tyrese Haliburton scored 22 points and handed out 13 assists for the Pacers, who had six players score in double figures.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we did a great job of starting the game the right way,\u201d said Haliburton, who had delivered the game-winner in the 119-118 overtime triumph that clinched the Pacers\u2019 first-round playoff victory over the Milwaukee Bucks.<\/p>\n
Pascal Siakam scored 10 of his 17 points in the first quarter as Indiana took a 36-25 lead.<\/p>\n
The Pacers overcame a 33-point performance from Cavs star Donovan Mitchell and 17 turnovers of their own that led to 22 Cleveland points.<\/p>\n
The turnovers helped Cleveland claw back from a 12-point deficit early in the third, taking a one-point lead on Evan Mobley\u2019s hook shot with 3:16 minutes left in the period.<\/p>\n
Mobley added 20 points and 10 rebounds, but the Cavaliers clearly missed All-Star point guard Darius Garland, who missed a third straight game with a sprained toe.<\/p>\n
They could not respond as Indiana put together a 15-4 scoring run to pull away again in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe weathered the storm,\u201d Haliburton said. \u201cWe did it by getting stops, getting out running and just playing Pacers basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Tyrese](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/AP25124836156868-1746422909.jpg\")
Indiana Pacers\u2019 Tyrese Haliburton (0) goes to the basket in front of Cleveland Cavaliers\u2019 Dean Wade (32) in the first half of Game 1 in the Eastern Conference semifinals of the NBA basketball playoffs, on Sunday, May 4, 2025, in Cleveland, US [Sue Ogrocki\/AP]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Buddy Hield\u2019s 33 points allowed Golden State Warriors to knock out the Houston Rockets, while Indiana Pacers upset…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,292,194,4066,6,67,211,275,417,418],"class_list":{"0":"post-9862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-rockets","11":"tag-houstonrockets","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-rockets","15":"tag-sport","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-us-canada"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}