“My point is to keep it (about) basketball,” Ime Udoka says of his message to younger Rockets. “It is just going back out there and doing what you have done all year to get us to this point.”
The last time the Rockets hosted a playoff game at Toyota Center, it was six years ago and also against their 2025 first-round opponents, the Golden State Warriors. At the time, each member of Houston’s current young core of Jalen Green, Alperen Sengun, Jabari Smith Jr., Tari Eason, and Amen Thompson was a child simply trying to develop his skills to eventually reach the NBA.
The battle between the two teams was always a heated contest that generally favored the Warriors, who continuously pursued a spot in the NBA Finals representing the Western Conference. Since 2015, the Warriors have won the West six times and the NBA Finals four times.
None of those memories, which still haunt Rockets fans today, apply to the current team. They simply see the Warriors as the opponent they must eliminate to advance to the second round of the 2025 playoffs.
Many have pointed to Houston’s youth and lack of playoff experience as reasons they will lose this series against playoff-tested veterans from the Warriors. Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Kevon Looney are the three veterans who remain from the 2019 Golden State squad that eliminated the Rockets in six games.
But what Houston’s players lack in experience is made up for in confidence.
“For them, my point is to keep it basketball,” Rockets head coach Ime Udoka said of his message to his young players. “At the end of the day, it is just going back out there and doing what you have done all year to get us to this point.”
Rockets forward Amen Thompson, who grew up in the California’s Bay Area watching the Warriors during their championship runs, echoed his head coach’s sentiments about the age and playoff experience being a factor.
“It is all about playing basketball,” Thompson said. “We are here for a reason. We don’t care about anything they (Golden State) have going on.”
One major factor that will help keep the young core of Rockets players level-headed throughout the best-of-seven series is the championship pedigree of players like guard Fred VanVleet. In the 2019 NBA Finals, VanVleet’s Toronto Raptors defeated that same Golden State team that knocked out the 2018-19 Rockets a few weeks earlier.
“This ain’t that team, and that ain’t that team,” VanVleet said when asked about the Rockets’ playoff trauma against the Warriors. “We’re a different team. They’re a different team. It’s a new year.”
“With the acquisition (of Jimmy Butler) they made at the deadline, obviously, they’ve been on a heater. They’re one of the best teams in the league over the last few months. We understand that. Respect your opponent, and you’ve gotta go out there and lace ’em up.”