After dropping two straight games to the Houston Rockets, the Golden State Warriors bounced back on Sunday, winning Game 7 by a score of 103-89 to advance to the conference semifinals. After a relatively lopsided Game 5 loss and a turnover-filled Game 6 defeat, how did the Warriors regroup?
In a postgame interview with TNT's Inside the NBA, Warriors guard Buddy Hield, who scored a game-high 33 points in the victory, said that an "emotional" team meeting led by Draymond Green, Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler sparked Golden State to victory.
"Yesterday when we got to Houston, we had a very emotional meeting led by Draymond, Steph and Jimmy," Hield said. "From then, I was just locked in. It just got my spirit together. The meeting we had just gave everybody chills and when we go to battle, we know what that means. The meeting was well-needed."
"We had a very emotional meeting led by Draymond, Steph and Jimmy"
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Buddy Hield touched on a meeting that the @warriors held after their Game 6 loss 🤝 pic.twitter.com/EhyUvWnZiW
Golden State rode Hield's red-hot shooting to a halftime lead, then it was Curry, who had struggled with his shot in the first half, who came alive down the stretch as the Rockets mounted a late push. And to Warriors coach Steve Kerr, the tone was set by Green, who took accountability for losing his cool in Game 6 while speaking to his teammates.
"Draymond set the tone last night at the team meeting," Kerr said while speaking to reporters after the game. "Basically, he owned up to losing his poise in Game 6, and I agreed with him. I thought the flagrant foul four minutes into the game was a tone-setter, and he knew it."
"And so he talked to the group and said, 'I got to be poised and I have to be better, and we're going to come in here tomorrow and get it done.' And I think his emotional stability tonight, just his poise from the start, set a great tone."
Green scored 16 points, chipping in six rebounds, five assists, two blocks and a steal. The Warriors veteran helped hold Rockets All-Star center Alperen Sengun to just 9-for-23 shooting from the field. And Green wasn't the only one owning up to something in the Warriors' players-only meeting, as newcomer Jimmy Butler had something to get off his chest.
"My message to my guys was I wasn't being who I was," Butler said. "In a sense of pumping confidence into my guys. I think that's a part of my leadership that I've learned and gained throughout my years of playing this game at a high level.
"I wasn't doing that for the first six games, so I wanted to make sure to let them know that I was going to show everything was going to be fine, we're right where we wanted to be and I think I got back to being who I'm supposed to be."
The Warriors advance to the conference semifinals against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Game 1 tips off on Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. ET.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as What Draymond Green Told Warriors in 'Emotional' Team Meeting Before Game 7 Win.
