Very rarely do in-season trades work as well as the Warriors’ acquisition of Jimmy Butler, which turned a below-.500 team into a possible title contender. Stephen Curry is still an offensive marvel in Year 16, Draymond Green is a Kia Defensive Player of the Year candidate once again and Butler has fit in remarkably well.
The Houston Rockets, who’ve gone from 22-60 two seasons ago to 52-30 this year, had an even stronger close to the season than the revamped Warriors. The Rockets ranked in the top four on both ends of the floor as they went 15-2 to clinch the No. 2 seed in a brutally tough Western Conference, concluding that stretch with an impressive win at Golden State on April 6.
Though the Rockets also won when these teams met in the Emirates NBA Cup quarterfinals, the Warriors won the season series 3-2. It’s a fascinating matchup between grizzled vets and young upstarts, with the Warriors’ 2015 championship having come when most of the Rockets’ core was in middle school.
Series schedule
Here’s how to watch the Rockets vs. Warriors series:
All times Eastern Standard Time
- Game 1: Warriors at Rockets (Sun. April 20, 9:30 ET, TNT)
- Game 2: Warriors at Rockets (Wed. April 23, 9:30 ET, TNT)
- Game 3: Rockets at Warriors (Sat. April 26, 8:30 ET, ABC)
- Game 4: Rockets at Warriors (Mon. April 28, 10 ET, TNT)
- Game 5: Warriors at Rockets (Wed. April 30, TBD)*
- Game 6: Rockets at Warriors (Fri. May 2, TBD)*
- Game 7: Warriors at Rockets (Sun. May 4, TBD)*
* = If necessary
Top storyline
The possession game. The Rockets averaged 5.5 more shooting opportunities (shots from the field or trips to the line) than their opponents. That was the league’s biggest differential and the fifth biggest for any team in the past 25 seasons.
They ranked 23rd in effective field goal percentage, but the Rockets made up for subpar shooting by getting more shots. They led the league in offensive rebounding percentage by a huge margin, averaging the second most second-chance points per game (18.1) for any team in the 29 seasons that second-chance points have been tracked.
The Warriors haven’t been good in the possession game in years past, but they’ve seen dramatic improvement this season. And after acquiring Butler, they averaged 5.5 more shooting opportunities than their opponents, the same differential as the Rockets’ season-long mark. At season’s end, the Rockets and Warriors were the two teams that ranked in the top 10 in both offensive and defensive rebounding percentage.
Shooting opportunities were even in the Warriors’ seven-point win in Houston just before the All-Star break, but the Rockets had the advantage (committing four fewer turnovers) in their 10-point win in April. The possession game will likely play a big role in this series as well, and Houston should be the more desperate team in that regard.
