VanVleet leads Rockets back from 3-1 deficit and into deciding Game 7 against Warriors

HOUSTON (AP) — Fred VanVleet combined for 55 points in the last two games to lead the Houston Rockets back from a 3-1 deficit and force a deciding Game 7 against the Golden State Warriors on Sunday night at home in their first-round playoff series.

Now the question becomes if Postseason Fred and these scrappy, young Rockets can win a third straight game to finally vanquish longtime playoff nemesis Stephen Curry and Co. and advance to face Minnesota in the Western Conference semifinals.

After making just 6 of 29 3-pointers in the first three games of the series, VanVleet has gone 18 for 27 in the last three. He’s led the Rockets in scoring three times this postseason after doing so just eight times in the entire regular season.

The 31-year-old had his best game yet Friday night, scoring 29 points with eight rebounds and eight assists to lead Houston to the 115-107 victory to extend the series once again.

VanVleet, who helped the Raptors beat the Warriors for the title in 2019, is ready for the challenge of Game 7.

“It’s going to take everybody. It’s not really just about me,” he said. “As a guy that’s been there, we have enough to get it done, it’s just a matter of can we play at a high enough level all at the same time? We’ve been able to do that over the last couple games, but we’ve got to stay focused and do it one more time.”

For most of the Rockets, who are in the postseason for the first time since 2020, this will be their first Game 7. Things are very different for the Warriors, who have loads of experience in such contests.

Seven Warriors have played in a Game 7, led by Curry and Draymond Green, who have been in five apiece. Curry has averaged 32.6 points in those games, highlighted by a 50-point outing to down Sacramento in 2023.

Curry said things change when you get into elimination games in the playoffs.

“It’s not just the points on the board, it’s the feeling, it’s the vibe, morale, momentum,” he said. “You got to dig deep to win these type of games. Thankfully we have another opportunity to go do it. We’re very confident that we can go do it.”

The Warriors are playing their fifth Game 7 since 2015 and have gone 3-1 in the previous four. It’s the fifth time they’re playing Houston in the postseason and have won each of the first four meetings.

One of those series wins came in a Game 7 in Houston when Curry had 27 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds in the 101-92 victory in 2018 that sent Golden State to its fourth straight NBA Finals.

Houston missed 27 straight 3-pointers in that game in an epic collapse that still haunts Rockets fans, though no player on the current roster was part of that team.

When/Where to Watch: Game 7, Sunday, 6:30 p.m. ET, TNT

Series: Tied 3-3

BetMGM Sportsbook: Rockets by 2.5.

What to Know: 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 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. … Steven Adams has been a wild card in this series for the Rockets as coach Ime Udoka has employed his double big lineup with Alperen Sengun. Adams, who averaged just 13.7 minutes a game during the regular season, played 31 minutes in Game 6 to help Houston win. He had a season-high 17 points in his most minutes since 2023 as Golden State coach Steve Kerr employed the Hack-a-Shaq tactic of fouling him to slow down the Rockets. Adams, a career 53% free-throw shooter, was 9 of 16 from the line Friday night. He leads the Rockets with 21 offensive rebounds and eight blocks in this series. … Green was miffed that the Rockets seemed to come up with most loose balls in Game 6. He was asked why he thinks that was the case. “It can be due to whatever,” he said. “The reality is the person who wants the ball more will get it. Right now, seems like they want it more.” … Kerr is looking for his team to focus on ball security after Golden State has averaged 15 turnovers in its three losses in the series. “We’re in a rush,” he said. “We got to slow down a little bit.”

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Houston Rockets forward Amen Thompson (1) shoots between Golden State Warriors center Quinten Post (21) and guard Stephen Curry (30) during the second half of Game 6 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series Friday, May 2, 2025, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Houston Rockets center Alperen Sengun (28) passes to Rockets forward Amen Thompson (1) while guarded by Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) in the fourth quarter of Game 6 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series Friday, May 2, 2025, in San Francisco. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler III head to the bench in fourth quarter of Game 6 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series Friday, May 2, 2025, in San Francisco. (Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry reacts after making a 3-point basket during the second half of Game 6 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series against the Houston Rockets, Friday, May 2, 2025, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Houston Rockets center Steven Adams (12) dunks in front of Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green during the second half of Game 6 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series Friday, May 2, 2025, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Houston Rockets' bench celebrates Fred VanVleet's three-pointer and a foul in fourth quarter of Game 6 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series Friday, May 2, 2025, in San Francisco. (Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry (30) is fouled by Houston Rockets' Fred VanVleet, right, in the first quarter of Game 6 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series Friday, May 2, 2025, in San Francisco. (Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Houston Rockets guard Fred VanVleet (5) is hugged by center Alperen Sengun after the team's victory over the Golden State Warriors in Game 6 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series Friday, May 2, 2025, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

In November, a train carrying almost 500 people came to a sudden halt in eastern Poland. A broken overhead line had smashed several windows, and the track ahead was damaged. Elsewhere on the line, explosives detonated under a passing freight train.

No one was hurt in either case and the damage was limited, but Poland, which blamed the attack on Russia’s intelligence services, responded forcefully: It deployed 10,000 troops to protect critical infrastructure.

The sabotage in Poland is one of 145 incidents in an Associated Press database that Western officials say are part of a campaign of disruption across Europe masterminded by Russia. Officials say the campaign — waged since President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — aims to deprive Kyiv of support, create divisions among Europeans and identify the continent's security weak spots.

So far in this hybrid war, most known acts of sabotage have resulted in minimal damage — nothing compared to the tens of thousands of lives lost and cities decimated across Ukraine.

But officials say each act — from vandalism of monuments to cyberattacks to warehouse fires — sucks up valuable security resources. The head of one large European intelligence service said investigations into Russian interference now swallow up as much of the agency’s time as terrorism.

While the campaign places a heavy burden on European security services, it costs Russia next to nothing, officials say. That’s because Moscow is carrying out cross-border operations that require European countries to cooperate extensively on investigations — while often using foreigners with criminal backgrounds as cheap proxies for Russian intelligence operatives. That means Moscow notches up a win just by tying up resources — even when plots aren’t successful.

“It’s a 24/7 operation between all the services to stop it,” said a senior European intelligence official, who like the head of the European intelligence service and other officials who spoke to AP insisted on anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters.

Over the course of the year, AP spoke to more than 40 European and NATO officials from 13 countries to document the scope of this hybrid war, including incidents on its map only when linked by Western officials to Russia, its proxies or its ally Belarus.

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told AP that Russia doesn't have “any connection” with the campaign.

AP’s database shows a spike in arson and explosives plots from one in 2023 to 26 in 2024. Six have been documented so far in 2025. Three vandalism cases were recorded last year, meanwhile, and one this year.

The data is incomplete since not all incidents are made public, and it can take officials months to establish a link to Moscow. But the spike matches what officials have warned: The campaign is growing more dangerous.

The countries most frequently targeted, according to the map, border Russia: Poland and Estonia. Several incidents have also occurred in Latvia, the U.K., Germany and France. All are major supporters of Ukraine.

The European official, a senior Baltic intelligence official and another intelligence official said the campaign noticeably calmed in late 2024 and early this year. Their analysis showed Moscow likely paused the campaign to curry favor with U.S. President Donald Trump's new administration. It has since resumed at full pace.

“They are back to business,” the European official said.

The man officials say was behind the attack on the Polish railway that carries supplies to Ukraine is Yevgeny Ivanov — a Ukrainian convicted of working with Russian military intelligence to plot arson attacks at home improvement stores, a cafe and a drone factory in Ukraine, according to court documents.

Ivanov, who left Poland after the attack there, worked for Yury Sizov, an officer from Russia's GRU military intelligence service, according to Ukraine’s security service.

Ivanov was convicted in absentia in Ukraine but managed to enter Poland because Ukraine did not inform Polish officials of his conviction, Polish Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński said. Ukraine’s security service said it closely cooperates with allies.

Staging plots that involve perpetrators from several countries or who have crossed borders drains investigatory resources from multiple authorities across Europe — one of Moscow’s key goals, according to Estonian State Prosecutor Triinu Olev-Aas.

Over the last year, she said the profile of attackers in Estonia has changed from locals largely known to law enforcement to unknown foreigners. That requires increased cooperation among countries to disrupt plots or detain perpetrators.

For two attacks in January — fires set at a supermarket and a Ukrainian restaurant — the people hired had never been to Estonia before, Olev-Aas said.

At the restaurant, a Moldovan man smashed a window, threw in a can of gasoline and set it alight. Video showed his arm on fire as he ran away.

The man and his accomplice fled through Latvia, Lithuania and Poland before being caught in Italy.

While Russian intelligence officers might be the masterminds of such operations, they frequently rely on recruiters — often with convictions or criminal connections — who assign tasks to saboteurs on the ground, the Baltic official said.

Outsourcing to people with criminal backgrounds, like Ivanov, means Russia doesn’t have to risk highly trained intelligence operatives — agents Moscow often doesn’t have recourse to anyway since European countries kicked out scores of spies as relations nosedived in recent years.

Russian criminal networks offer a ready-made alternative, the Baltic official said.

The European official said the man accused of coordinating a plot to put explosives in packages on cargo planes, for example, was recruited by Russian intelligence after involvement with smuggling guns and explosives. The man is linked to at leastfour other plots.

Other people are recruited from European prisons or soon after they're released, the Baltic official said.

In one case, the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, dedicated to the Soviet Union’s occupation of the country, was set on fire by someone released from prison the previous month.

Even plots that are foiled are a win for Moscow because they test defenses and waste resources.

In 2024, a Ukrainian man, working on the orders of Russian military intelligence, dug up a cache of items buried in a cemetery in Lithuania, including drone parts and cans of corn filled with explosives.

Officials believe the plan was to rig the drones with the explosives. The plot was eventually foiled — but not before considerable resources were used to track down everyone involved, said Jacek Dobrzyński, the spokesperson for Poland’s security minister.

The sheer number of plots is overstretching some law enforcement agencies, but Moscow’s campaign has also fostered greater cooperation, the European official said.

Prosecutors in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have created joint investigation teams for attacks organized by foreign intelligence services, said Mārtiņš Jansons, a special prosecutor in Latvia.

In the U.K., front-line police officers are being trained to spot suspicious incidents that may be state-backed, said Cmdr. Dominic Murphy, head of the counterterrorism squad at the Metropolitan Police.

He noted a trainee detective flagged an arson attack at a warehouse in London after realizing the business was owned by Ukrainians and contained communications devices used by the military. Police determined the attack was organized by Russian intelligence.

But officials warn Russia is continually testing new methods.

Smugglers in Russia’s ally Belarus have sent hundreds of weather balloons carrying cigarettes into Lithuania and Poland, repeatedly forcing the Lithuanian capital’s airport to shut in what authorities called a hybrid attack.

“Nowadays they only carry cigarettes," Dobrzyński warned, "but in future they could carry other things."

Associated Press writers John Leicester in Paris, Claudia Ciobanu in Warsaw, Poland, and Volodymyr Yurchuk in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed.

FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, leads a meeting with top security and defense officials at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside of Moscow, Aug. 12, 2024. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, right, visits the sabotaged rail line near Mika, Poland, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/KPRM, File)

FILE - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, second right, visits the sabotaged rail line near Mika, Poland, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/KPRM, File)

FILE - In this 2024 handout photo provided by the Metropolitan Police, two people can be seen shortly before authorities say they set fire to a warehouse in east London. (London Metropolitan Police via AP, File)

FILE - This 2024 handout photo provided by the Metropolitan Police shows damage to a warehouse in east London that was storing goods for Ukraine, after a fire that prosecutors said was organized on behalf of Russia's intelligence services. (London Metropolitan Police via AP, File)