SAN FRANCISCO — So giddy was Stephen Curry after the Warriors’ gritty Game 4 win that the Golden State star couldn’t stop jumping up and down amid the postgame jubilation.

That is, until he found Draymond Green, whom he wrapped up in a bear hug even tighter than the one bestowed on him by Rockets defenders so far this series.

Green made the game-winning play in the duo’s 102nd playoff win together, 109-106 Monday night, setting up a potential knockout Game 5 in Houston on Wednesday. Alperen Sengun, who already had 31 points, backed him down and put up his 28th attempt of the night as the game clock ticked below 5 seconds, but Green altered the shot enough to preserve the Warriors’ one-point lead.

“That’s what you want right there … like me taking the game-winning shot,” Curry said of the one-on-one matchup with the game on the line. “He stood tall, took the challenge.

“To be able to do that with how the rest of the game went is a testament to him understanding the moment, staying locked in, engaged, doing what he needs to do to help us win.”

Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry (30) hugs Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green (23) after their 109-106 win over the Houston Rockets for Game 4 of the Western Conference First Round NBA Playoffs game at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, April 28, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group) 

In arguably the most heated meeting yet of a first-round series that wasn’t lacking fire to begin with, the notoriously temperamental Green kept his cool such that he could be on the court in the game’s biggest moment.

That didn’t necessarily look like it was going to be the case when Green picked up his fourth personal foul before halftime and his fifth shortly into the second half.

“I’m never going to be one of the guys that just because you got fouls you don’t defend,” Green said. “… They were trying to muddy the game up. But it’s fine. We kept it pushing.”

Rockets coach Ime Udoka said that from the getgo, “the plan was to go attack Green.” He finished with six points, eight rebounds, two assists — and five personal fouls, as well as a technical for coming to Curry’s defense in a scuffle with Dillon Brooks in the first half.

“And a flagrant,” Jimmy Butler added, when Green’s legs got tied up with Tari Eason while diving for a loose ball only a few possessions later.

Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green (23) fights for the ball against Houston Rockets’ Tari Eason (17) in the second quarter of Game 4 of the Western Conference First Round NBA Playoffs game at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, April 28, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group) 

Both teams poured onto the floor after Brooks fouled Curry and attempted to take the ball from him, and Green said there were “guys way more aggressive than me.” Still, the technical was Green’s third of the series already — seven in one postseason earns a one-game suspension — and put him one misstep away from being ejected Monday, a fate he was spared when officials assessed him a flagrant on the play with Eason rather than a second technical.

Two of either would have banished him from the game.

“I’m always walking that line,” Green said. “Habitual line stepper.”

It wouldn’t have been the first time Green was ejected from a playoff game. He was tossed from postseason contests in 2022 and 2023 for flagrant fouls against the Grizzlies’ Brandon Clarke and Kings’ Domantas Sabonis and was suspended for amassing too many technical fouls in 2016.

“I’m not even going to say that it’s growth,” Butler said. “He knows we must have Draymond on the floor in order to win. The amount of poise he has when everything he does, it’s always blown out of proportion. If it was anybody else, it wouldn’t be that.”

But Green’s reputation precedes him, and Houston has attempted to provoke him on and off the court. He hasn’t had any of it.

Given the opportunity to inflame tensions when Jalen Green came after him following Game 3, Green declined. He shrugged his shoulders when the opposing crowd chanted expletives at him. Asked for a response to Brooks calling him a dirty player, Green said, “I have none.”

“Draymond always walks the line. He always teeters on that line. He’s an emotional force, a physical force. He just can’t cross the line. He knows that. He’s just done a great job of playing through the frustration,” coach Steve Kerr said. “This is a tough series for him. The way the game is being played, they’ve kind of taken the ball out of his hands a little bit. I just think he’s done a really good job of dealing with the frustration and competing. The last two games, his fourth quarter defense keyed everything.”

Green picked up his fourth foul with 2:44 to go until halftime and his fifth less than 4 minutes into the third quarter. Golden State was forced to play without him from the 8:04 mark of the third quarter, holding a 63-56 lead, until there was 7:51 left in the fourth, down 91-90.

But it wasn’t just Green the Rockets were sniping at.

Curry received his technical foul for “taunting” Brooks by holding up two fingers to indicate his second foul. Brooks then lurched at him, prompting Green to race over and the benches to clear. But it was merely a response to the same motion Brooks made at him after a foul on the other end.

“That was so stupid because he had did it literally the play before,” Curry said. “I just returned the favor.”

Brooks was also running his mouth at Butler, who poured in 18 of his 25 points in the second half to keep Golden State afloat.

Related Articles

Draymond Green’s duality on display in Warriors’ Game 4 win over Rockets

Warriors in awe as ‘Playoff Jimmy’ makes Game 4’s biggest play vs. Rockets

Warriors win Game 4 over Rockets as Butler comes up big late in return

Warriors-Rockets scuffle: Draymond, Brooks, Curry T’d up during Game 4

Jimmy Butler injury update: Warriors star to play in Game 4 vs. Rockets

“People start talking to you, then good things happen,” said Butler, who was asked if it was fun going back-and-forth with Houston’s hard-nosed enforcer. “We all like it when people start chirping. It’s been this way this entire series. I don’t think it’s going to change. …

“Give me this: I don’t like Dillon Brooks. We’re never having fun. I’m a fierce competitor. He’s a fierce competitor. There ain’t nothing fun about that. … Fun is winning. Fun is competing. It’s going to be fun when we get four.”

Green survived nearly 8 minutes on the court with five fouls. Leading by one with 13 seconds to go, there was just one possession left when Butler approached him in the huddle.

“I told Dray, if you get a stop, I will get the rebound,” Butler said. “He got the stop and I got the rebound.”