Golden State Warriors @ Houston Rockets
Wednesday, April 23, 2025 at 9:30 PM ET
Toyota Center, Houston, TX | Game ID: 42400152
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
HOU 28 32 27 22 109GSW 18 28 25 23 94
ESPN UpdateESPN Update
Jalen Green makes eight 3s with 38 points to help Rockets even series with 109-94 win over Warriors
HOUSTON -- — In his playoff debut this weekend Jalen Green admitted that playoff jitters got the best of him.
“The lights were bright, the crowd was here, the court looked huge,” he said. “So I couldn’t really get a chance to settle in. My legs was a little shaky.”
Things were much different Wednesday night.
Green made eight 3-pointers and scored 38 points to lead the Houston Rockets to a 109-94 victory over the Golden State Warriors in a testy matchup to even the first-round Western Conference series at one game apiece.
“I feel like a did a good job of answering back," he said. “From the beginning my whole mindset from today was to go in and be aggressive and get back to being myself.”
The seventh-seeded Warriors never led and played short-handed for most of the night after Jimmy Butler left with a pelvis contusion after a hard fall on a foul late in the first quarter.
Green, the No. 2 pick in the 2021 draft, rebounded from a flop in his playoff debut, when he scored just seven points on 3-of-15 shooting, with a dominant Game 2.
His eight 3-pointers were two more than the No. 2-seeded Rockets made on 6-of-29 shooting in a 95-85 Game 1 loss .
Alperen Sengun had 17 points and 16 rebounds for the Rockets. Tari Eason had 14 points off the bench.
Coach Ime Udoka raved about the combination of Green and Sengun.
“When they’re both rolling, we’re hard to beat,” he said.
Game 2 is Saturday night at Golden State.
Stephen Curry had 20 points and nine assists for the Warriors and become the 11th player in NBA history to reach 4,000 career playoff points. He finished the night with 4,017.
“He did a great job,” coach Steve Kerr said. “We just didn’t have enough tonight.”
Houston led by 20 with about 10 minutes left before the Warriors used a 9-0 run, with two 3s from Quinten Post , run to get within 11. Jalen Green was called for a flagrant foul on Draymond Green at the end of that run after he flailed an arm into his face.
The Rockets then used an 8-0 spurt, highlighted by a step-back 3 from Green, to extend the lead to 99-80 with 5 1/2 minutes remaining. Draymond Green received a technical foul in that stretch for arguing with officials and Eason received one for throwing a towel in an “unsportsmanlike manner.”
The loss of Butler, acquired from Miami in a February trade, was a huge blow to the Warriors after he had 25 points, seven rebounds and six assists in the series opener.
Kerr said it's too soon to speculate about the availability of Butler for Game 3. He'll have an MRI on Thursday.
“Hopefully Jimmy will be able to play,” he said. “But if not we have to go through our options and put together a plan.”
On top of Butler’s injury, the Warriors were also hampered by Brandin Podziemski’s stomach ailment.
He missed most of the first half dealing with the problem and was scoreless in 14 minutes after scoring 14 points in Game 1.
Who is who
the initials in the Players column
GSWBH B. Hield
BK B. Key
BP B. Podziemski
DG D. Green
GP G. Payton II
GS G. Santos
JB J. Butler III
JK J. Kuminga
KK K. Knox II
KL K. Looney
MM M. Moody
PS P. Spencer
QP Q. Post
SC S. Curry
TJ T. Jackson-Davis
HOUAH A. Holiday
AS A. Sengun
AT A. Thompson
CW C. Whitmore
DB D. Brooks
FV F. VanVleet
JG J. Green
JS J. Smith Jr.
JG Ja. Green
RS R. Sheppard
SA S. Adams
TE T. Eason
GSW/HOU the team itself, not a player
-- the feed named nobody
What
What happened
the codes in the Events column
M2 / M3 made 2 / made 3
X2 / X3 missed 2 / missed 3
FT / X1 free throw made / missed
AST assist
OR / DR offensive / defensive rebound
STL steal
BLK block
TO turnover
FL foul
OF offensive foul — ends the possession
VIOL violation
JUMP jump ball
TM timeout
IR instant replay
HE heave at the buzzer, filed to the team
Where
Where a shot came from
the middle field of M3.LW.25
RM at the rim inside 4 ft
RC right corner
RW right wing
SO straight on
LW left wing
LC left corner
M3.LW.25 made 3, left wing, 25 ft
X2.RM.01 missed 2, at the rim, 1 ft
When
When it happened
the Offset column
one number per event, in the Events order:
whole seconds from the start of the
possession to that event
Events FL X3.RC.23 OR M2.RM.01
Offset 0 18 22 24
the foul opens the possession at 0s;
the putback ends it at 24s, which is
the possession's own Dur