Preview: Warriors look to eliminate Rockets in Game 6 in Chase Center
The Warriors are historically dominant in May under Steve Kerr, and they are undefeated at home in these playoffs. Will those trends hold tonight against a dangerous Houston team?
After getting absolutely steamrolled in Game 5’s Clutch City catastrophe, the Warriors return to the Bay with a simple mission: end this madness now, before things get truly weird.
The Houston Rockets punched Golden State in the mouth Wednesday night with a blistering 40-point first quarter and never looked back, sending the Warriors’ starters to an early exit by midway through the third. It was exactly the kind of humbling beatdown that either galvanizes a championship contender or foreshadows their downfall.
GAME DETAILS
WHO: Golden State Warriors vs. Houston Rockets
Warriors lead series, 3-2
WHEN: Friday, May 2nd, 2025; 6pm PDT
WATCH: ESPN
Let’s be real: this was always going to be a fascinating chess match between two of the league’s most tactically stubborn teams. Per our guy the legend Joe Viray, The Rockets are going big-on-big and deploying that maddening Steven Adams & Alperen Şengün double-big zone that’s given Golden State fits all series. The Warriors like going small and running-and-gunning. If Adams is too annoying, they start hacking him to force him to go to the free throw line and make Coach Ime Udoka blink and put the giant on the bench.
The Warriors’ new dynamic duo of Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler looked unstoppable in their first two games together, putting up a combined 59 points in their debut and turning a 24-point deficit into a laugher against Chicago. But Houston’s zone and desperation completely neutralized their effect in Game 5, holding the pair to limited minutes as Steve Kerr waved the white flag with Golden State down by damn near thirty in the third quarter.
“You can feel that it’s a game that is highly unlikely to go our way,” Kerr told 95.7 The Game, explaining his decision to pull his starters early. The move might prove brilliant if a fully-rested Curry-Butler tandem comes out blazing tonight.
Keys to Victory
- Attack the Middle: Gary Payton II laid out the blueprint perfectly in Game 5: “Hit the middle and spray out of there. Once it hits the middle, the defense collapses, hit to our spot-up shooters and just make shots.” The Warriors showed flashes of this approach but lacked commitment and urgency.
- Butler’s Free Throw Parade: The Warriors’ offense transformed with Jimmy’s arrival because he does something revolutionary for this team – actually getting to the free throw line. Against a Rockets team currently allowing the second-highest opponent free throw rate in the playoffs, Butler needs to continue his parade to the charity stripe.
- Bench Boost: Golden State’s reserves actually outplayed Houston’s in Game 5, cutting a 31-point deficit down to 13 before a late scuffle derailed momentum. That energy needs to carry over, especially if Fred VanVleet continues his Steph Curry impression (shooting 12-of-18 from three over his last two games).
The Warriors don’t want to get on another plane to Houston. History shows teams with home court in Game 6 of a 3-2 series win approximately 75% of the time, and Chase Center should be rocking. This is exactly why Jimmy Butler was acquired – to prevent the playoff collapses that plagued Golden State in recent years.
Thankfully though, it’s May! Do you know what that means boys and girls? It’s when something mystical happens to the Golden State Warriors. It’s like watching Clark Kent step into a phone booth, except instead of one superhero emerging, it’s an entire roster that suddenly remembers how to bend the laws of basketball reality. The Warriors’ May record under Steve Kerr isn’t just impressive—it’s downright mythological.
Per Stat Head, their 69-21 record (.696 winning percentage) when the calendar flips to May isn’t just a statistic; it’s a warning to the rest of the league that playtime is over. It’s basketball’s version of winter turning to summer in a single day. While other teams are wilting in the playoff pressure cooker, the Warriors are out there photosynthesizing championship DNA.
May is when Steph Curry transforms from a regular season nightmare into a full-blown basketball sleep paralysis demon. It’s when Draymond Green’s defensive IQ somehow increases by 50 points, like he’s been downloading basketball knowledge directly into his cerebral cortex all season just for this moment. And now, Jimmy Butler gets to experience what it means to play in May with the Warriors instead of in the other conference—it’s time to combine the powers.
In May, the Oracle Arena ghosts migrate across the Bay to haunt visiting teams at Chase. The banners hanging from the rafters don’t just commemorate past glory—they actively whisper defensive rotations to Warriors players while opponents are trying to run their sets. It’s why visiting coaches develop that thousand-yard stare by halftime.
Remember when people used to think Warriors basketball was all about joy and light? May Warriors bring darkness and chaos. May Warriors send teams back to their cities questioning their career choices. May Warriors have a way of making “maybe next year” the official slogan of seven or eight franchises simultaneously.
The Rockets might have stumbled upon a winning formula in Game 5, but they’ve now walked willingly into the month when Golden State historically becomes the basketball equivalent of that meme where the Grim Reaper knocks on doors one by one. And tonight, he’s knocking on Houston’s.