VanVleet and Thompson lead the way as Rockets avoid elimination, routing Warriors 131-116 in Game 5

Pushed to the brink of elimination, the Houston Rockets delivered a playoff gem Wednesday night to beat the Golden State Warriors and keep their season alive.

Fred VanVleet scored 26 points, Amen Thompson added 25 and the Rockets extended their first-round playoff series with a 131-116 rout in Game 5.

“Nobody wants to go home,” Alperen Sengun said.

Game 6 is Friday in San Francisco.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr threw in the towel early in this one with the game out of hand. A layup by VanVleet midway through the third quarter made it 93-64, and Kerr called timeout and cleared his bench.

Houston coach Ime Udoka followed suit with about a minute to go in the third and his team up 105-76. He put all his starters back in with about eight minutes left after Golden State cut the lead to 109-92.

Dillon Brooks added 24 points on a night when all five Houston starters scored in double figures.

VanVleet, a nine-year veteran who won a title against Golden State while with Toronto in 2019, tried to encourage his young teammates by reminding them that they’ve been in every game.

“Keep everything light and fresh and and confident and understand that we have played good basketball,” he said. “It’s not like we were getting our (expletive) kicked the whole time.”

A 9-5 run by the Warriors got them within 114-101 before a fracas broke out with about four minutes to go. Pat Spencer pushed Brooks and then was ejected after headbutting Alperen Sengun in the ensuing scuffle.

Houston went on a 7-2 run after that to put the game away.

“Houston was great and they took it to us right away,” Kerr said. “But like I said, it was an important finish.”

Reserve Moses Moody led the Warriors with 25 points. Golden State’s 76 bench points were the most in a playoff game for the franchise since 1970-71, when starters began being tracked.

The Rockets put together their best performance this postseason after losing both games in California, including Game 3, which Jimmy Butler sat out with an injury.

“We came out aggressive, executed offensively and defensively,” Jalen Green said. “We had a professional approach and handled business.”

The Rockets raced to a 14-point lead after one quarter and by the time Stephen Curry made his first basket on a 3-pointer midway through the second, they led 55-32.

They had a 27-point lead at halftime behind 19 points from VanVleet.

Butler managed just eight points in 25 minutes on 2-of-10 shooting after combining for 52 points in the two full games he’d played in this series.

Curry was 4 of 12 for 13 points after scoring more than 30 points in two of the first four games to move the Warriors within a game of clinching the series.

The Warriors made 15 of 44 3-pointers and shot 41.7% overall. The Rockets made 13 of 30 3s and shot 55.1%.

By extending the series, the Rockets have a chance to become the 14th team in NBA history to overcome a 3-1 deficit in a best-of-seven series. Houston has done it twice, most recently in the 2015 Western Conference semifinals against the Clippers.

The Warriors were on the wrong end of such a comeback, losing the 2016 NBA Finals to LeBron James and Cleveland after having a 3-1 advantage.

Golden State has dominated the Rockets in the playoffs, eliminating them four times between 2015 and 2019.

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