Fred VanVleet scored 26 points and Amen Thompson added 25 as the Houston Rockets avoided elimination with a dominant 131-116 win over the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series.
Amen Thompson picks Steph 🔒
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) May 1, 2025
TOUGH AND-ONE 😤 pic.twitter.com/Z8Ldhz4MLM
The Rockets extended the series to a Game 6, set for Friday in San Francisco.
Houston jumped out to a 14-point lead after the first quarter and never looked back, leading by as many as 31 points in the third. VanVleet’s layup midway through the third made it 93-64, prompting Warriors coach Steve Kerr to clear his bench. Rockets coach Ime Udoka followed suit late in the third, but reinserted his starters after Golden State cut the deficit to 17.
Dillon Brooks scored 24 points, and all five Houston starters finished in double figures. Alperen Sengun had 15 points, while Jalen Green added 14 and praised the team’s focus: “We had a professional approach and handled business.”
VanVleet, a 2019 NBA champion with Toronto, said he reminded his young teammates to stay confident.
“It’s not like we were getting our (expletive) kicked the whole time,” VanVleet said.
The Warriors closed within 114-101 in the fourth before a scuffle broke out. Pat Spencer was ejected for headbutting Sengun after shoving Brooks. The Rockets responded with a 7-2 run to seal the win.
WARRIORS-ROCKETS SCUFFLE 😳
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) May 1, 2025
Pat Spencer gets ejected after headbutting Şengün. pic.twitter.com/7HbtzzNB4o
Moses Moody led Golden State with 25 points off the bench. The Warriors scored 76 bench points — their most in a playoff game since 1971 — but starters struggled. Jimmy Butler had just eight points on 2-of-10 shooting, and Stephen Curry scored 13 on 4-of-12 from the field.
The Rockets shot 55.1% overall and made 13 of 30 from three, while Golden State hit 15 of 44 from deep and shot 41.7%.
Houston now has a chance to become just the 14th team in NBA history to overcome a 3-1 series deficit — something they last did in 2015. The Warriors, infamously, blew a 3-1 lead in the 2016 Finals.
