HOUSTON (AP) — Houston faced the Golden State Warriors in the playoffs four times between 2015-19, and each time the Rockets were sent packing.
On Sunday night, the No. 2 seed Rockets return to the postseason for the first time since 2020 and will face their old playoff nemesis — Steph Curry and the seventh-seeded Warriors in Game 1 of the best-of-seven Western Conference series.
While Curry, Draymond Green and Kevon Looney were around for all those battles with the Rockets, including wins in the Western Conference finals in 2015 and 2018, there isn’t a player remaining on Houston’s roster who played in even one of those games.
And these Rockets aren’t worried about what happened in the past.
“This ain’t that team,” Houston’s Fred VanVleet said.
Indeed.
Those teams were led by James Harden, whose trade demand sent the Rockets into a full rebuild that made them one of the NBA’s worst teams for three seasons. Coach Ime Udoka was hired before last season and Houston improved to 41-41 before making another jump this season to end the playoff drought.
“We’re not just happy to be here,” Udoka said. “We wanna obviously make some noise as well.”
These new-look Rockets have veterans VanVleet and Dillon Brooks, but rely heavily on a young core of high draft picks led by Jalen Green, Jabari Smith and Amen Thompson.
“They are the No. 2 seed for a reason,” Curry said. “They have played well all year long. They play a certain physical style of defense, and they are super athletic.”
The Warriors got the seventh seed with a 121-116 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday night in the Play-In Tournament to return to the playoffs after failing to make the postseason after losing the play-in last season.
Brooks embraces the villain role for the Rockets with his aggressive play and piled up the league’s second-most technical fouls this season with 16.
In this series he’ll face Green, who also has a penchant for collecting technical fouls and was three behind Brooks with 13.
With the two of them facing off for potentially seven games, many expect there to be some fireworks. That led to Brooks being asked how many ejections he expects in the series.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m not going to get ejected. I’ll leave that to somebody else.”
Jimmy Butler had made 63 of 68 free throws in eight April games before missing six at the line — 12 for 18 — on Tuesday night. It marked Golden State’s first victory in the play-in rounds after going 0-3 in games played in 2021 and last year.
The knack “Playoff Jimmy” has for drawing contact and getting to the line has meant so much to the Warriors.
“Incredibly quick first step and crafty feel for the game,” coach Steve Kerr said. ”... He’s clearly one of the best iso players in the NBA and a lot of that efficiency just comes from drawing contact and so I can’t tell you how valuable that is for us, what it does for our team to settle the game down and setting our defense up. There’s a reason our whole season shifted when we got him, he’s that good.”
The Warriors were 23-8 in the regular season after acquiring Butler from the Heat.
The Warriors are the betting favorites and have been picked by many prognosticators to win the series despite the Rockets being a much higher seed.
Golden State last won the title in 2022 and two of its other titles came in 2015 and 2018 after they beat the Rockets to advance to the NBA Finals. Houston won its only titles in 1994 and 1995.
Udoka said the Rockets don’t care that they’re the underdogs in this series and can’t concern themselves with outside noise.
Golden State has allowed costly opponents offensive rebounds contributing to second and third chances in recent games. The Warriors were beaten 50-39 on the boards by the Grizzlies and 42-25 in a 124-119 defeat to the Clippers in the regular-season finale last Sunday.
Kerr has stressed “scrapping and getting to every loose ball.”
The Rockets led the NBA this season by averaging 14.6 offensive rebounds and Golden State was fifth with 12.5.
High-flying forward Jonathan Kuminga’s role has diminished since Butler joined the team. Sidelined by an ankle injury earlier this year, Kuminga didn’t play the past two games — though Green fully expects him to factor into the rotation against the Rockets.
“He’ll contribute. He’s great. He’s getting his work in. That’s all you can do in that situation is get your work in,” Green said. “And he’ll be meaningful for us in that series. I have zero doubt about that. I think the challenge for him is to stay mentally engaged, as it is for anyone in that situation.”
AP Sports Writer Janie McCauley contributed to this report.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) is congratulated by forward Draymond Green after making a 3-point basket during the second half of an NBA play-in tournament basketball game against the Memphis Grizzlies in San Francisco, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry (30) claps and urges on the crowd in the second half of an NBA play-in tournament basketball game against the Memphis Grizzlies in San Francisco, on Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
RHO, Italy (AP) — No ice is colder and harder than speedskating ice. The precision it takes has meant that Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on a temporary indoor rink – until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.
In the pursuit of maximum glide and minimum friction, Olympic officials brought on ice master Mark Messer, a veteran of six previous Olympic speedskating tracks and the ice technician in charge of the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Canada — one of the fastest tracks in the world with over 300 records.
Messer has been putting that experience to work one thin layer of ice at a time since the end of October at the new Speed Skating Stadium, built inside adjacent trade fair halls in the city of Rho just north of Milan.
“It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in icemaking,’’ Messer said during an interview less than two weeks into the process.
If Goldilocks were a speedskater, hockey ice would be medium hard, for fast puck movement and sharp turns. Figure skating ice would be softer, allowing push off for jumps and so the ice doesn’t shatter on landing. Curling ice is the softest and warmest of all, for controlled sliding.
For speedskating ice to be just right, it must be hard, cold and clean. And very, very smooth.
“The blades are so sharp, that if there is some dirt, the blade will lose the edge,’’ Messer said, and the skater will lose speed.
Speedskater Enrico Fabris, who won two Olympic golds in Turin in 2006, has traded in his skates to be deputy sports manager at the speedskating venue in Rho. For him, perfect ice means the conditions are the same for all skaters — and then if it's fast ice, so much the better.
"It's more of a pleasure to skate on this ice,'' he said.
Messer’s first Olympics were in Calgary in 1988 — the first time speedskating was held indoors. “That gave us some advantages because we didn’t have to worry about the weather, wind blowing or rain,’’ he said. Now he is upping the challenge by becoming the first ice master to build a temporary rink for the Olympics.
Before Messer arrived in Italy, workers spent weeks setting up insulation to level the floor and then a network of pipes and rubber tubes that carry glycol — an antifreeze — that is brought down to minus 7 or minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 to 19.4 degrees Fahrenheit) to make the ice.
Water is run through a purification system — but it can’t be too pure, or the ice that forms will be too brittle. Just the right amount of impurities “holds the ice together,’’ Messer said.
The first layers of water are applied slowly, with a spray nozzle; after the ice reaches a few centimeters it is painted white — a full day’s work — and the stripes are added to make lanes.
“The first one takes about 45 minutes. And then as soon as it freezes, we go back and do it again, and again and again. So we do it hundreds of times,’’ Messer said.
As the ice gets thicker, and is more stable, workers apply subsequent layers of water with hoses. Messer attaches his hose to hockey sticks for easier spreading.
What must absolutely be avoided is dirt, dust or frost — all of which can cause friction for the skaters, slowing them down. The goal is that when the skaters push “they can go as far as possible with the least amount of effort,’’ Messer said.
The Zamboni ice resurfacing machine plays a key role in keeping the track clean, cutting off a layer and spraying water to make a new surface.
One challenge is gauging how quickly the water from the resurfacing machine freezes in the temporary rink.
Another is getting the ice to the right thickness so that the Zamboni, weighing in at six tons, doesn’t shift the insulation, rubber tubing or ice itself.
“When you drive that out, if there’s anything moving it will move. We don’t want that,’’ Messer said.
The rink got its first big test on Nov. 29-30 during a Junior World Cup event. In a permanent rink, test events are usually held a year before the Olympics, leaving more time for adjustments. “We have a very small window to learn,’’ Messer acknowledged.
Dutch speedskater Kayo Vos, who won the men’s neo-senior 1,000 meters, said the ice was a little soft — but Messer didn’t seem too concerned.
“We went very modest to start, now we can start to change the temperatures and try to make it faster and still maintain it as a safe ice,’’ he said.
Fine-tuning the air temperature and humidity and ice temperature must be done methodically — taking into account that there will be 6,000 spectators in the venue for each event. The next real test will be on Jan. 31, when the Olympians take to the ice for their first training session.
“Eighty percent of the work is done but the hardest part is the last 20 percent, where we have to try to find the values and the way of running the equipment so all the skaters get the same conditions and all the skaters get the best conditions,’’ Messer said.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Serpentines are set on the ice of the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Workers clean the ice surface during a peed skating Junior World Cup and Olympic test event, in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
