Game 7: DEN/LAC, HOU/GSW, Pistons

HOUSTON 3, GOLDEN STATE 3

If everyone stays healthy.

If Fred VanVleet crushes in the clutch.

If the young players listen to the coaching staff about defense.

If the the team isn't rattled by the trade deadline.

If all the young role players continue to roll offensively.

If Dillon Brooks and Jalen Green don't shoot them out of it.

If healthy Steven Adams performs as if 2022-23 and 2023-24 and part of 2024-25 never happened.

If Reed Sheppard can make an impact at age 20, even if Reed starts the year with an 18-year old's mustache.

The Rockets nearly nailed all them. The 31-year old Adams was still the wildest "if," a massive body who broke down in 2022 and didn't fully recover until deep into 2024-25. In Game 6 (a 115-107 Houston win) on Friday he submarined Golden State's best hope at a late-stage championship, bruising with the sort of play the Warriors remember from the last decade.

The Warriors remembered Adams can't hit free throws and hacked, Adams knocked in 9-16 while we all watched. It was the fourth time Golden State employed the gimmick in a series featuring five competitive games. In Game 6 the ploy inarguably addled Golden State's momentum, literal propulsion toward the other end. The team had to sit around and wait for a large man in his 30s to shoot free throws. These things take time.

Two times the Warriors couldn't wait Adams out, flopping for fouls and watching as Rocket big man Alperen Şengün tossed himself toward the carom for an offensive rebound of an Adams miss. Houston was settled away from home, at no point betraying an imagined fate, the Rockets potentially minutes away from season's end. Seconds spent with Stephen Curry hounding the basketball.

Curry did not splash onward in Game 6, no Warrior did. The fourth quarter began with a delightful two-way sprint with Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler III but devolved into Clang City, Warrior mainstays missed 10 of 12 to begin the period, Steph missed four of five from deep. Houston executed its defense wonderfully, Adams can tell from playoff years of experience the look Draymond Green's face exhibits when Green owns zero intention of shooting.

Jimmy Butler missed threes too long, too strong, too short, too aim-y, 1-6 from deep and each one hurt. In fact, the Rockets asked the Warriors to show them where it hurt and then the Rockets thwapped the part that hurt with a basketball. Just threw it at the sore spot.

Green has not been strong this series. He has until Sunday evening to figure out how to make himself a figure on offense.

At the moment the Warriors feature far too many "eh"-players to turn into a credible Western semifinal team, the second round in the West is some shit, you better bring points. Gary Payton II (who entered the starting lineup), Brandin Podziemski (who exited), Green and to an extent Jimmy Butler are not taken seriously as shooters.

Buddy Hield simply isn't taken seriously, he got his third start of the series in Game 6 but missed all four of his attempts, each from deep. He'll either be less than worthless in Game 7 or he'll hit two buckets to save Golden State's season.

The Rockets were all over those would-be buckets in Game 6, GSW's harried attempts at ignition. Houston was all over its own buckets. The Rox consistently delivered answer shots: Fred VanVleet, Jabari Smith Jr., Tari Eason and Aaron Holiday all ended Warrior runs. Halted some sound, determined attempts from the Warriors at whapping a dent into that lead.

Never happened, so the Warriors started fouling Steven Adams.

Not working.

Free throw miss or make, the Warriors are walking the ball up court. GP (1-4 from deep) and BP (2-6 from deep) found extra pressure dolloped onto their looks due to Steve Kerr's lineup switch, trying to make their reputations right with one pull-up from 25-feet.

Draymond got away with it all night. Bored with the typical routine – Green's old hat was earning a technical foul early before defying the referees to kick him out with the second – achieving resounding new lows. He hammers down a flagrant foul in the first half, for the second game in a row, then sees if the refs have the nerve to whistle anything else.

They didn't. Green had at least pair of flagrants and, what, six or seven technicals to follow? None were called. I'm not bored by his typical routine, I can't be, I'm stuck with it. But I get why others are sick of it.

The Warriors screw up, let Smith and VanVleet and Eason walk into it, because the Warriors play brand new lineups, and because the Warriors field four guard-sized guys plus Dray. Three guys plus the new guy plus Draymond. The Warriors are several inches smaller at several positions and yet Golden State still can't get in front of the smallest fella on the floor.

Golden State in Game 7, on the road? Why not?

Doris Burke mentioned it in the second half, I couldn't help but marvel at it in the first half, Stephen Curry is strong. Very strong. He absolutely owns the ability to pump in enough points from outside on Sunday, he could make a memory of the Rockets, send them back to the Trade Machine.

Houston should traipse all over the visitors, frankly, but confidence is an interesting thing. It can drag you away from what you do best.

Game 7 in Houston on Sunday at 7:30 PM Eastern on TNT

WIN OR LOSE ON SUNDAY

Can we stop trying to add players to the top two teams in the Western Conference? Do they really have to trade for a famous person we've all watched a million times for us to gain interest?

Us, here, I get it, we're reading about the NBA on a weekend. We're interested.

But is the rest of the world yawning at the Thunder or Rockets? Fans aren't compelled until they add someone drafted before the NBA started putting a second advertisement on its uniforms?

I coulda just said "drafted ten years ago" but no. Fuck those ads. They look like shit.

You know which team needs to add an aging NBA star? Provably every team but Houston and Oklahoma City.

STEVEN ADAMS AND HIS SIBLINGS AND STEP-SIBLINGS

When we talk about Steven Adams being one of 18 kids, we gotta remember, they had a couple different head coaches during that run.

Same leading scorer.

DENVER 3, L.A. CLIPPERS 3

Not only has Denver done this before – 2019's split of Game 7s probably feels like last spring to Nikola Jokic – but the Clippers know it. The Clippers live in 2019, too.

The Clippers play well from behind. The Clippers are famous but a surprise, the disaster moving sneaking into first place in that year's box office rankings. The Clippers are just fine working outside someone else's lighting while they warm their voice up.

It can go hot. Can you imagine Norm Powell breaking his road misalignment in time for Game 7? Yes. Kris Dunn following through on a few made threes? Surely. James Harden confusing Christian Braun off an offensive rebound? James strolling into the lane with his strong hand?

Here is the thing about James Harden, going left.

He's left-handed.

It doesn't sound natural because it isn't, being left-handed. It is a statistical oddity, an abnormality. Not freakish, but not far off. And we must discovery empathy there, in the absence of relating to it. To not bump their elbows when they try to somehow write with that thing, the left hand. I don't know how they do it.

I know you're wondering does James eat that way or is that why Harden doesn't shave or is this why James Harden doesn't type into a computer and these are all valid questions, but beside the point.

Everything we'd want to do with a basketball he wants to do, but with his left hand. It sounds ridiculous because it is ridiculous, but that's what they do, left-handers. It is tough to understand, to even visualize – a left-handed basketball player, fantastical – but James Harden is in there, and the Nuggets have to deal with it.

Christian Braun did cool shit with James Harden's transition angles in Game 6. Harden took it easy in the fourth quarter, but James Harden also looked like he didn't want to stop playing NBA basketball on Thursday. Like he didn't want his 2024-25 to end.

Maybe it is time dilation, maybe he wants to party in Houston or San Francisco in the second round, but Harden has a full-series spark we haven't seen before, certainly not in the past series, when he blurped all over his Game 7s (36 percent career, in six Game 7s).

Maybe James will blurp all over Game 7, but win it at the buzzer. A dichotomy for ESPN to chew on all afternoon all week in front of tens of thousands of viewers.

The Nuggets will earn calls at home in Game 7, they'll need them.

Denver ceded turnovers and free throws to the Clippers in the second and third period, I don't want to hear about calls lost in the fourth. Yes, Jokic got it in the chin and the arm on consecutive plays down the stretch. Fouls, so what.

Nuggets coach David Adelman wasn't incorrect, pointing out those blown calls, but he might be wrong. The Game 6 referees were going to watch their missteps that night, the incoming Game 7 referees were always going to know that Nikola Jokic got the raw deal late in Game 6. Adelman did not need pointing it out.

Will that get in the way of a contest called without reflex? Impossible, with humans around. We don't want to question a referee's integrity, only the instinct behind an instantaneous call.

NBA refs aren't calling anything in the 2025 playoffs. It is great and I love it, but Game 7's refs have that excuse in hand along with any martyrdom they want to carry over from Adelman's comments. That's not bias, or a bad decision, only a presumed (non-)call coming to fruition. Refs are people, people can't help but think ahead of time, find those stupid patterns.

Denver's been through a lot this month, and keeping hold can come to a head at the worst time. There is a lot of pressure to perform under, in Adelman's tenth NBA game, Jokic fretting over getting someone fired, the frontcourt unable to walk without wincing, let alone run.

Luckily, the Nuggets have a Canadian. Not worried about the Denver Nuggets.

PISTONS DONE

Malik Beasley blowing the Pistons' chance for a Game 7, dropping the ball at home with a wide-open, game-tying three-pointer waiting for him, it is a little on the button. Dr. Threesley was one of the largest reasons why the Pistons weren't in a Play-In, his range and timing gave Detroit a comfortable run to a guaranteed playoff seed, something nobody pictured ahead of 2024-25.

He's also Malik Beasley, telling everyone about his Shimmy Plans before the series and then betraying those Shimmy Plans, expecting Tom Thibodeau to take far more Malik Beasley-related timeouts than Thibs did, or even considered. Additionally, if Malik Beasley wanted to time his three-point celebrations to the opponent's frantic timeouts, then he needs to pay attention to how many timeouts his opponent's coach has, and when the TV timeout is nigh.

Beasley didn't, but he did Shimmy on Thursday after nailing a three-pointer which brought the Pistons back to a six-point deficit. Potentially an important shot but who cares, the Pistons were down six and at home inside an opposing team's close-out game. Something that not should be the case in a position and time such as this. Let alone time for that Shimmy.

Pistons assistant Steve Scalzi recognized as much, that basketball players playing from behind at home in what could be a season-ending playoff game should not take preemptive celebration breaks. Scalzi waved his arms toward the side of the court Beasley should get back to, Beasley did.

The Pistons season didn't end because of this, it ended because of a billion little things, from Beasley's last-second biff and Ausur Thompson's late-game whiff of a defensive stand to poor early transition defense in the first half, lack of recognition of Jalen Brunson's intentions. Jalen wanted 40 points in the first half of Game 6, not 40 in the game. The Knicks wanted to burden the Pistons early, assuming they'd quit at home, you gotta swarm that heat.

Detroit didn't quit, it never does. The regular season was a trip, win after impressive win, nary a novelty or caveat to locate. The postseason wasn't clean, every game had pockmarks, even the wins, especially the losses. Especially Game 6. All of it done without Isaiah Stewart.

My final take? Grant Hill nearly said "Toby Harrah" two different times while trying to talk about Tobias Harris.

The Pistons like playing with one another, they don't want it to end, the Pistons wish they had a new game on Sunday, a trip to Toronto for an afternoon game, a gig hosting the Mavericks, anything but watching other teams play NBA basketball. Fucking, drag.

The final payoff for Jalen Duren was whoever the Timberwolves take with the No. 17 selection in this June's draft, a terrific trade for Detroit, thank you Troy Weaver, thank you Tom Gores for taking on Kemba Walker's salary.

The appreciation ends there: Gores paid the league's lowest payroll in 2024-25, by far, he's due to pay the lowest payroll again next season. Tobias Harris is a free agent in 2026 and the Pistons require someone to do what Tobias Harris did for them in 2024-25, but beyond 2026, and it can't be Tobias Harris. Beasley and Tim Hardaway Jr. and Dennis Schröder are free agents in July and the Pistons need their contributions back.

They may not need those particular contributors back. The NBA's forever dilemma.

Beasley is 29 in November, Schröder is 32 right now, Harris and Hardaway (in July) 33. The NBA has at least 20 win-now teams, each of them are after a capable backup point guard, two-way swingmen, steady stretch power forward. There will be bids on Schröder and Hardaway and Beasley and the winning teams may be disappointed with the player they contracted. Will the Pistons be that team? Or will the role players thrive, or disappoint, elsewhere?

(Gotta lose Schröder, the coaches used him as a crutch and it cost Ausur Thompson important minutes in the series.)

Other teams feature fans and media that want them to make moves, but the Pistons actually have to make moves. New general manager Trajan Langdon has to fill this roster, he needs to make a decision on Jaden Ivey's extension. I'm out here worrying, but that's a good time. Langdon has one of 30 jobs, cap space, one of the NBA's most promising clubs.

Friends: Detroit has center and point guard figured out. Everything else is filling out the fun positions.

This IS fun. Go kick ass, Trajan.

WHY DO WE LOVE J.B. BICKERSTAFF

He gets on Knick play-by-play man Mike Breen's nerves.

“I’ve been doing this over 30 years,” Breen said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a coach argue this much, nonstop from the opening tip ’til now."

What about every other coach? Every other coach, ever?

"If you talk to the players, Clyde (Frazier), they’ll tell you this is part of why they love this guy. They say, ‘He’s a dog, like the players. He’s fighting for it like the players.’

Clyde Frazier was sitting next to Breen at the time, in his role as Knick color analyst. Mike wasn't just talking to his imaginary friend, NBA Hall of Famer Clyde Frazier.

Not that anyone would do something as silly as that. Not you or me, ain't that right, Earl?

“But there comes a point where (referee) Tony Brothers is gonna say, ‘Another technical and you’re gone.’ It’s nonstop. It’s continuous.”

I love Mike Breen but five nights an NBA week he displays unending obsequiousness in deference to an invisible principal who hears everything.

Mike Breen makes hall monitors want to take a smoke break in the bathroom. But he's annoyed at J.B. Bickerstaff.

Mike Breen, sits behind Tom Thibodeau standing and yelling nonstop for three hours, only spaced out with halftime breaks and timeouts where Thibs spends the whole time talking, but Breen's never seen anything like J.B. Bickerstaff.

I mean, I get it. J.B. does have an argumentative last name.

SUNS HIRE NEW GM

Supposedly he was chief in the team's move to draft Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro, which, no. I understand there is more to scouting and advising and, ahem, consulting, than the last five minutes before a draft pick is chosen, but, no.

Watch that video from the Suns' draft room, new Suns GM David Gregory is sitting down, off to the side, ignored.

Save for the one part, not in the video, where Gregory pulls owner Suns owner Mat Ishbia to the side and said, hey, remember in 1998 when you told me, 'if you let me on the Spartans, someday I'll let you run the NBA team that I buy via my dodgy real estate empire,' remember that? I do.

Listen, a promise is a promise. Credit to Mat Ishbia for being a man of his word.

LAZY NINA

This clip is back online just in time for Soul Train Saturday.

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