Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
HOUSTON – So many of Sunday night’s images felt familiar, etched into NBA lore over the past decade-plus: Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Playoff Jimmy (Butler) rising to the moment on the postseason stage.
And then there was the birth of this curious phenomenon: Game 7 Buddy.
Buddy Hield joined his celebrated teammates in ushering the Golden State Warriors into the Western Conference semifinals. Hield chose an ideal time to impersonate Curry’s longtime Splash brother, Klay Thompson, in raining home 3-point shots when it mattered most.
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Hield scored 33 points as the Warriors steamed to a 103-89 victory over the Houston Rockets in Game 7 of their first-round playoff series. Golden State thus advanced to face Minnesota on Tuesday night.
First, though, let’s pause and recognize Hield’s improbable role Sunday night at Toyota Center. He made 12 of 15 shots from the field, including 9 of 11 from long range. He didn’t commit a turnover in nearly 37 minutes on the court. He played solid defense on Jalen Green and Fred VanVleet.
This is the same Buddy Hield who serves as the target of relentless, good-natured joking from Warriors coaches and teammates. Late in the regular season, head coach Steve Kerr kiddingly “introduced” him to Curry, as an amusing way to remind Hield to pass to Curry when he’s open.
Earlier in this Rockets series, Butler chided Hield for dribbling too much – and echoed the point after Steven Adams, Houston’s lumbering center, swiped the ball from him. In his two previous games, Hield scored just four points combined (including a scoreless outing in Game 6) and missed all six of his shots beyond the arc.
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Then he came out in the first Game 7 of his NBA career (and only his 11th playoff game), with his team’s season twisting in the balance, and climbed into The Zone. Suddenly, the basket looked enormous and every shot rippled blissfully through the net.
“Being in the zone is very spiritual,” Hield said. “It’s just you and that rim, the net and the ball, and you’re figuring it out. Sometimes, you put everything up and it just goes in. It’s being at peace with your game.”
Hield’s nine 3-pointers are tied for the second-most in Warriors playoff history, behind only Thompson’s 11 in Game 6 of the 2016 West finals against Oklahoma City. That was the signature postseason performance of a player often known as “Game 6 Klay.”
Much like Thompson, Hield leaned on his pure, catch-and-shoot skills. He seldom dribbled Sunday, taking advantage of the space created by Houston’s determination to not let Curry spring free.
Hield scored 22 points in the first half, including a 42-foot heave at the first-quarter buzzer, to help the Warriors seize a 12-point lead. He went scoreless in the third quarter and then erupted for 11 more points in the fourth, to put away the Rockets.
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“I could see just the way Buddy was walking this morning, the way he was talking, he was so engaged,” Draymond Green said. “He delivered on the biggest stage and it was huge for us.
“We’re going to need that Buddy to continue on. It won’t be nine 3s every night, but just the intensity and focus level he had.”
Those nine 3s matched Donte DiVincenzo for the most in a Game 7 in NBA history. Hield also became the first player ever to go scoreless in one playoff game and score at least 33 in the next game (in a single postseason), surpassing the 31 posted by Tim Perry in 1992 and Eddie Johnson in ‘97.
All this, and it seemed reasonable to think Hield might not even start Sunday given how poorly he played in Games 5 and 6. Kerr insisted he didn’t consider removing Hield (with Moses Moody as the logical candidate to replace him), because the lineup of Curry, Brandin Podziemski, Hield, Butler and Green had been Golden State’s best five-man unit in the series, according to advanced analytics.
Hield also made sense because of his long history as a potent 3-point shooter, and the respect that commands from defenses. He’s made 2,127 long-range shots in his career (in the regular season), putting him 16th in NBA history and ninth among active players.
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“It changed the whole game and gave our offense more space,” Podziemski said of Hield’s shooting outburst. “The Rockets were more conscious of him out there, so it gave space for Steph and Jimmy to work.”
Or, as Kerr said with a touch of wonder in his voice, “Buddy Hield: I don’t know what to say. That was really incredible, watching him light it up in that first half especially, and then down the stretch as well.”
The night wouldn’t be complete without some entertaining interaction between Hield and Butler. As Hield completed his postgame news conference, Butler prepared to replace him at the podium.
Hield seized the moment, loudly announcing, “Jimmy Butler, everybody!” Then Hield began clapping. Moments later, he pounded a table trying to drum up faux excitement for the start of his teammate’s session with the media.
“Buddy!” Butler said wearily, as if annoyed by his little brother. “Buddy, please!”
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Then the first question for Butler, naturally: What did he think of Buddy’s performance? Hield lingered nearby waiting for the answer.
“Buddy gets paid a lot of money to play at a high level,” Butler said, smiling. “Buddy was Buddy tonight. Good for you, Buddy.”
Butler’s tone then turned serious, and he added, “No, Buddy was huge. He made so many right plays tonight, getting the ball where it needed to go. Buddy was really, really big for us.”
Game 7 Buddy. What a thing.
