After the game, 2025 NBA Hustle Award winner Draymond Green said, "They weren't playing 'Whoop that Trick' but they may as well have been," per Anthony Slater of The Athletic. A brief Warriors run early in the fourth cut the lead, but the Rockets’ starters quickly eliminated any threat.

With the Warriors leading by just one point in the dying moments on the fourth quarter, Green delivered the game-deciding stop to lead the team to their third win of the series. Steve Kerr knows his man is as reliable as they come in those moments. The Warriors head coach expressed that sentiment at the postgame press conference.

After the loss, Kerr explained that he and veteran Draymond Green made the decision at halftime to pull the Warriors' starters if they were unable to cut into the deficit quickly. "I wasn't going to chase this game,

Draymond Green went directly to the camera and put his face mere inches from the lens. He wanted to tell the world that he was still its best defender. As if there was any question of that after he played picture-perfect defense on Houston center Alperen Şengün’s last-second isolation shot to seal a Warriors win and a 3-1 first-round series lead.

With his team trailing by 27 points to the red-hot Houston Rockets at halftime, coach Steve Kerr pulled Golden State emotional leader Draymond Green aside for a quick chat and to ask his opinion. Should the Warriors plan to save their starters for what looked like an inevitable Game 6 in two days if things became any more out of hand after intermission?

The Houston Rockets avoided elimination with a 131-116 win over the Golden State Warriors in Game 5 as tempers flared once again.