On To The Next, Warriors Beat Rockets NBA Playoffs 2025

This series is, I mean, it's all over the place. It's not gonna be, you know, I'll call it a beautiful brand of basketball just 'cause of the matchup and the defensive intensity and the physicality. But for us to withstand a rough start shooting the ball, it takes a little bit of patience to figure out rotations and everybody's asked to do a little something different.

Stephen, how helpful is Jimmy in that role? I mean, Steve compared him to a little bit to Andre when it comes to basketball smarts and seeing things.

Yeah, he's a savvy veteran, high IQ guy. He's got a presence whether he's on the, you know, active or not where his voice matters and we needed him to, you know, lift everybody up on the bench and give us that energy, so.

You know, we try to keep the game simple and to the point of how they're guarding me. If, you know, they're gonna send a trap or double team or blitz a pick and roll when I get off of it. Buddy's a guy that demands attention. You can't leave him open. And if he has a little bit of daylight, he's gotta be able to take those and knock them down. Moses hit a big one in the fourth, I think. So those two guys are threats on the wing, but Buddy especially. You know, that's what he's done in his whole career. Career. So for him to have a game like he did and shoot the ball the way he did, give defensive effort, plus 14, like, that's big time. But if I'm aggressive, then you get a situation where GP gets a backdoor cut because two guys go after me because I made a couple shots. Like, you got to make sure you keep them honest.

How does that impact how you make any adjustment, whether it's physical or mental, knowing that he's not going to be there?

There was just a moment in the second quarter where I had to kind of get a little bit more assertive and not let the double teams and the traps take me out of possessions. I only had 4 shots in the first quarter, and, you know, usually that can work to our advantage if we're moving the ball, guys are getting open looks, but we weren't. It didn't seem like there was a lot of flow, so I kind of did kind of force the issue a little bit in the second quarter and got going. Thankfully hit some shots. Just trying to manage the game, you know, while I'm out there and understand where to pick and choose my spots, because you can't just go crazy the whole game. You have to play in 41 minutes. You got to be able to understand, you know, the flow and when to, you know, look for your shot, when to get the ball out of the trap and let things happen on the back end. It's similar to when Jimmy's there, but that little bit in the second quarter was, you know, I understand we need to get some energy and some life.

You've kind of been there before too, where you've come back from an injury and You weren't 100%, but you go out there and you do what you do. What's the mentality when you know you can't be 100%? What takes you through 4 quarters of a game?

It's the sense of urgency at the moment.

No matter really how it looks, you understand it's a long game and there's going to be opportunities for you to make your impact felt. And just having a knack for— it doesn't have to be loud scoring opportunities or whatnot.

It's just—

there's moments where you feel feel like you can make a play and you have the confidence in yourself to do it. So it helps when somebody lights a fire on you too.

Brandon was really good today on both ends.

What'd you see from him today?

I could spend all day talking about him, Buddy, and Draymond's stop down the stretch.

Talk about Jimmy, you know, QB and coming in, getting a couple big ones and momentum.

But, you know, everybody contributed at a level that we need, and that's the playoffs. Like, every game has a different identity and a different feel. It's hard to predict how it's going to look, but you have to have 5 guys who are on the floor ready for their moment. BP did that.

There were certain matchups that he liked and took advantage of and made some timely shots for us.

All you want is everybody to be confident to, you know, take open shots, play the way that they see fit, and just bring energy, and he did that from the jump.

You mentioned a light of fire. Maybe that's a reference to some Dylan Brooks things. What did you think of your technical foul? Was there even more exciting? In this game than maybe in the past few?

There were more reviews and tech— every game has been physical and there's been moments. You expect two teams to not like each other at this point. You know, we're 4 games in, physical series. Every game is just a battle. It's what you expect when, you know, everybody's competing at a high level. You don't want the antics to distract from the game. And I think we did a good job of bouncing back in the second half and not letting, you know, those type of episodes really get under our skin at all and channel that energy in the right direction. So that's what a good team can do.

Curry! Curry! Curry!

Talked to Draymond, I said, "What do you think?" He said, "5 minutes." Unless we had made a huge run, kind of had it in mind that we pull the plug.

We're fine. Our confidence isn't gonna waver any. We gonna start out better, we're gonna play a better overall game. We know how good of a team we are as a unit. We know how good our players are as individuals. The starters, we got to kick us off better, which we know that we will do. We'll be fine.

That was a tough stretch because we started the game, I don't know if it was 8-2 or something like that.

8-2, yeah.

Had a good couple good possessions, hit some threes, and then the game kind of halted, but they got in the bonus in 4 and a half minutes, so, you know, they got confidence. Went on a run, got the crowd into it early, and the desperate team, you know, set the tone. So for us, we understand how to negate that going into Game 6 and come out with a better, better effort in that first 6 minutes and set the tone our way.

Yeah, we have two cracks at this thing to advance. We obviously want to get it done today, but, you know, we come into this building tonight knowing we got a wonderful opportunity. Nothing's guaranteed, but we feel very confident that if we play our game and hit our With this crowd, we've got a great chance to win and advance. And, you know, I say all the time, all we want is a chance. You know, every year you just want a chance. And Jimmy came in here and gave us a chance. Our guys have done an incredible job flipping the season, advancing to this point. And now it's up to us to go get it. And that's why we're here. That's why we do this.

[FOREIGN LANGUAGE] How much disappointment is there in that locker room or in your mind that not being able to take care of this at home?

It's a little frustrating. You get the opportunity to close out at home, want to do it. Nonetheless, it's a 7-game series. We know we can win there.

Gotta go get the win.

You can kind of look at the start of the fourth, Craig getting an and-one 3. That's a tough momentum play. Jabari got 2 3s off of a good hustle play —tough turnover and then another offensive rebound that turned into a 3.

A possession here, possession there.

It's not just the points on the board. It's a feeling. It's a vibe. It's a morale. It's momentum. You know, you got to dig deep to win these type of games. So thankfully we have another opportunity to go do it.

Steph, knowing that things change year to year in this league, how much does will play a factor in just wanting to have another game, another series with this particular group of guys on the team?

That's kind of baked into the nature of a Game 7. If you don't show up with that appropriate mentality, then you got a long vacation ahead of you. So, you know, you don't want to be the team that's packing up. We're packing for a week, getting on this plane to go to Texas and hopefully go to Minnesota right after. That's the approach. And I know we're all excited about the fact that we still have life left.

[FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Hey fellas, what does that say about this team on the road? Take it out! Surprise baby! Surprise! Surprise! Ahh! Surprise! Here we go! Yes sir! Yeah sir! Yessir! Yasssir! Inquisitor yeah!