Kurtenbach: Game 1 showed the massive mismatches between the Warriors, Rockets

The young Houston Rockets were introduced to the NBA playoffs by the Golden State Warriors on Sunday night. And sadly for them, I don’t think they’ll be staying around long.

Because, for all the talk about defense winning championships, the truth is that offense actually brings home trophies.

Yes, defense is vital in the NBA playoffs. But you know what’s even more important? Getting buckets.

And “Steph Curry usually finds a way,” Draymond Green said after the Warriors’ 95-85 Game 1 win Sunday.

Yes, he does. And — get this — his new sidekick is a man literally nicknamed “Buckets.”

Meanwhile, what do the Rockets have? A pesky attitude and a 22-year-old one-way center. Those are two things that will get you into the playoffs but not much further.

Yes, all evidence — including Game 1 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals series between Houston and Golden State — says that the Rockets cannot score. And with all due respect to a still-underrated Warriors defense, that issue goes beyond anything the Dubs are doing on that side of the court.

So spare me the Lone Star cope about offensive rebounding advantages or how shots “just didn’t fall.” The Warriors showed the Rockets who they are in Game 1, and the Rockets did the same in return.

The Warriors are experienced, but also flawed, and complicated (that’s a compliment). They boast the greatest shooter who has ever lived—a four-time champion and one of the best big-game players in recent NBA history, who knows this might be his last best chance to become a champion.

And the Rockets? They’re young, athletic, inexperienced, and downright putrid on offense.

“They’re not a typical modern NBA team … They’re kind of old school. It felt like 1997 out there to me — completely different NBA game than what we’re used to,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said of the Rockets.

He meant it as a compliment. I read it as a criticism. No offense to Kerr, who played in the ’90s, but basketball was a much uglier watch back then. (Seriously, watch a complete ’90s game on YouTube and then try to complain about all the 3-point shooting in 2025 — you can’t do it.)

But ’90s basketball can’t win 30 years later.

I’ve covered enough playoff series to know it’s a fool’s errand to make broad series proclamations after one game, but consider me a fool:

I don’t see Houston coming back to win this one.

They will run into a few and have a nice shooting night, or maybe two. (Then again, what isn’t “nice” compared to 39 percent shooting from the field and 20 percent shooting from beyond the arc.)

And perhaps the Warriors have the opposite happen to them — Houston’s defense can certainly clamp down on the Dubs for a game or two.

But those two factors happening in four of the next six games?

That’s a downright ridiculous idea. It’s far too fanciful to bet upon.

No, it only took one half of basketball — just the second quarter, really — to see how big of a mismatch this series is.

The Warriors countered Houston’s seemingly singular defensive idea of putting center Alperen Şengün on a wing by allowing that wing to initiate the offense at the top of the key. Curry, off the ball, was freed up just enough to score 10 in the second, and Butler added seven with his Steph-off-the-court unit outscoring Houston 14-4, as the Warriors won the frame 29-13.

Meanwhile, Green and Butler were anchoring a defense that flummoxed the Rockets’ already unimpressive offense. Houston spent most of the game hunting Curry when the Dubs were on defense, but they weren’t good enough offensively to draw the fouls.

Still, the Dubs moved to zone defenses, but proved adept at switching into man-to-man defenses halfway through possessions. When it took away Şengün’s mid-post floater — literally half the Rockets’ offense early in the game — you could sense the panic on the Houston bench from 2,000 miles away.

Yes, just like in the 2022 NBA Finals, there’s a matching coaching mismatch at play here, too. Ime Udoka and his staff have a few clever ideas every now and again — Şengün on Moses Moody was one of them from earlier this month — but once those concepts are countered, they’re adrift at sea.

Seriously, did the Rockets run a single offensive set on Sunday that wasn’t a short-roll for Şengün?

Udoka is a motivator, and a fine one at that. But, much like we saw when Udoka was the head coach of the Celtics in the 2022 NBA Finals, you can’t demand the ball to go through the basket. That form of coaching only gets you so far.

With this team, it’s far, to be exact.

And while the Warriors shouldn’t have turned a blowout win into a far-too-interesting game by, once again, taking their foot off the accelerator in the second half of a one-sided contest, the fact remains that Kerr coached circles around Udoka on Sunday.

This, while Kerr did his typical and often aggravating Game 1 experimentations. Kerr got away with overplaying Buddy Hield while having to eat some tough Brandin Podziemski and Moody minutes in the process.

The latter two players came through with flying colors in the clutch, though. And that’s what really matters.

Even if the Rockets shoot better and stymie Curry a bit more, they’ll have a tight game down the stretch at best.

The Warriors have been outstanding in such situations since the acquisition of Butler.

The Rockets might be the worst team in the playoffs in such circumstances.

Sunday, the Warriors closed, from 6 minutes to 1 minute to play, by shooting 6-of-11 from the floor.

Houston went 2-for-8 during the same stretch.

It all lines up with how the Rockets have played all year. On the season, the team’s effective shooting percentage is on par with that of teams competing for the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft: Utah, Philadelphia, Toronto, Washington, and Charlotte.

And in the final five minutes of close games this season, the Rockets are the NBA’s worst offensive team, posting an abysmal effective field goal percentage of 43 in 157 such “clutch” situations (final five minutes, within five points).

The Warriors might not be great under the same circumstances, but anything can beat what the Rockets put out there.

Houston was able to grab the No. 2 seed because they’re a pain in the rear to play on a Tuesday night in December. Every game is a fist fight for them, and in the regular season, no one expects to be punched with brass knuckles.

But come playoff time, quality opponents expect even more than just some five-fingered chrome. They’re ready for the whole armory. And who has seen more — and taken more punches — than Curry, Green, Kerr, and the Warriors?

So the Dubs will keep finding ways to score, even against a strong Houston defense. Curry can drive to soften up the Rockets’ defense (particularly when Şengün is on the floor) and then make shots no one else would even dare attempt.

Butler can probe on the dribble, creating good offense through patience and collective intelligence.

Together, the dynamic duo scored 56 points on 57 percent shooting Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Rockets are out here running the same play in the mid-post again and again and again while Şengün’s teammates channeled Rockets teams of the decade past by clanking shot after shot, even on some open looks, despite a woeful lack of spacing.

There are no adjustments the Rockets can make — no way to take a woeful offense and make it worthy of winning a series.

Even after all these years, the Rockets are still not ready-for-primetime players.

While it was only one game, the Warriors showed that old habits—like finding ways to win in the playoffs, and particularly in Houston—die hard.