Stephen Curry scored 14 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter, Buddy Hield made nine 3-Pointers and scored 33 points, and Golden State Warriors advanced to the Western Conference semi-final with a 103-89 win over Houston Rockets in Game 7 on Sunday night.

Warriors face Timberwolves on Tuesday night in Minnesota.

HIELD had a burning first half with six 3-Pointers and 22 points to lead Warriors to a 12-point lead, with Curry, scoring only three points before the break. Then Curry took over in the final minutes and performed his signature “Night Night” gesture as Warriors put Rockets away.

Warriors became the seventh No. 7 seed in the NBA story to advance to the semi -finals and eliminated Houston in the playoffs for a fifth time. They sent James Harden-led Rockets troops, packing four times between 2015 and 2019.

HILED was 9 out of 11 from 3-point range, set an NBA record for a game 7 and made more 3s than Rockets, which was 6 of 18 from long reach. Curry added 10 rebounds and seven assists.

Amen Thompson scored 24 points to lead Houston, who forced Game 7 with two straight wins but couldn’t remove the experienced warriors.

Golden State led by eight into the fourth and opened the quarter with a 5-0 race, uncovered by a 3 from Curry, to make it 75-62.

Houston scored the next six points, but Warriors used a 7-2 spurt with four points from Curry to make it 82-70 with about seven minutes left.

Curry made a disputed 3, rebound a unanswered jumper of Thompson and found Hield for an open corner 3 that made it 94-74 with 2:31 back.

It sent many of the red-clad Rockets fans streaming to outputs.

Jimmy Butler added 20 points, eight rebounds and seven assists for Warriors, which improved to 28-11 since his debut on February 8 after a trade from Miami.

Fred Vanvleet scored a combined 55 point in the last two games to help Houston expand the series. But he was limited to 17 points on 6-of-13 shooting Sunday to send the second-seeded rockets home early in their first trip to the playoffs since 2020.

He was far from the only rocket that fought. Big Man Alperen Sengun had 21 points and 14 rebounds. But he missed several lightweight shots on a 9-of-23 night.

Jalen Green, who had 38 points to lead Houston to a Game 2 win, ended with eight points.

Houston pulled with 15 before using a big race to get within three points in the third, but the Golden State ended the quarter with a 7-2 race to take a 70-62 lead into the fourth.

Warriors played without key Reserve Gary Payton II, sitting out with a disease that coach Steve Kerr said, had him “sick as a dog.”

Daymond Green added 16 points for Warriors, who had four starters in double.

Reporting Associated Press.

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