In a life-and-death battle, the Houston Rockets launched a devastating offensive in the fourth quarter and eventually defeated the Golden State Warriors 115-107, dragging the first round of the NBA Western Conference playoffs into a seventh game.

The Rockets will face off in Game 7 at home on Sunday, trying to become the 14th team in NBA history to come back from a 3-1 deficit.

In this game, Fred VanVleet scored 29 points and led the Rockets to a crucial fourth quarter climax. Center Alperen Sengon contributed 21 points and 14 rebounds. The two teamed up to break the Warriors' defense. In the fourth quarter, the Rockets played a 12-0 offensive and once widened the gap to 17 points.

Armen Thompson came off the bench to score 14 points, and New Zealand veteran Steven Adams had an even more amazing performance, playing 31 minutes off the bench (a season high), scoring 17 points on 4 of 4 shots, while also grabbing several key rebounds and delivering 3 blocks to support the Rockets' defense.

The Rockets blocked five shots and did a great job of limiting the Warriors' core player Stephen Curry. Although Curry scored 29 points, he only made 9 of 23 shots and committed five turnovers, which made it difficult for him to take over the game. Jimmy Butler also scored 27 points, but no other Warriors starter scored in double digits, and the offensive firepower was seriously insufficient.

VanVleet said after the game: "We just make every round difficult. We know how dangerous they are, but we are young and energetic and can drag them down in the latter stages of the game. We have indeed seized this advantage recently."

Warriors coach Steve Kerr said: "The key to this series is our ball control problem." He also specifically mentioned Adams' performance: "Adams was very good tonight. He completely controlled the game when he was on the court."

The Warriors tried to limit Adams with the "hacking tactic", but the free throw shooter, who had a low shooting percentage, made 9 of 16 free throws and caused the Rockets to grab rebounds and score twice several times, making the tactic counterproductive.

The winner of this series will face the Minnesota Timberwolves, who have already advanced, and eliminated the Los Angeles Lakers in five games.