Odalis Garcia: You can always count on J.J. Watt to make a difference (Video)
Home Team Heroes
Odalis Garcia
25 May 2018
Watt continues to make a remarkable impact on the city of Houston. Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for Sports Illustrated
This week's Home Team Hero is J.J. Watt. After raising millions of dollars for Houstonians after Hurricane Harvey, Watt is giving back to the Houston community again. J.J. responded after the tragedy at Santa Fe High School by offering to pay for the funerals of the 10 victims, and visited the survivors at the hospital. Watt always seems to be ready to help whenever he's needed.
You can give to Santa Fe High School too by donating to their gofundme page here.
Jimmy Butler converted three free throws with 58.7 seconds left, grabbed the game-clinching rebound with 4 seconds to go and then made two more free throws on the way to 27 points in his return from a pelvic injury, sending the Golden State Warriors past the Houston Rockets 109-106 on Monday night in a heated Game 4 to take a 3-1 lead in the first-round playoff series.
Fred VanVleet missed a 3-pointer under pressure at the buzzer.
The teams return to Houston for Game 5 in the best-of-seven series on Wednesday night as seventh-seeded Golden State tries to close out the No. 2 seed Rockets on their home floor.
Brandin Podziemski scored 26 points, Stephen Curry finished with 17 in the frantic finish and Buddy Hield hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 3:32 left and scored 15 after joining the starting lineup.
Alperen Sengun scored with 40 seconds left for Houston to make it a one-point game. He had 31 points and 10 rebounds, while VanVleet hit a tying 3-pointer with 1:20 to play and scored 25 points.
Butler was back after sitting out Game 3 with a pelvic contusion and deep gluteal muscle bruise suffered on a hard fall when he was fouled by Amen Thompson early in Game 2.
The second quarter Monday featured four technical fouls and a flagrant 1 in two separate tussles, including shoving during one sequence involving Curry, Draymond Green and Dillon Brooks.
With the game tied at 36, Curry dribbled down the sideline when Green put a hard screen on Houston’s Amen Thompson. Brooks fouled Curry and he appeared to become angry about the push before going at Curry and Green.
Curry received a technical for “taunting” Brooks, who also received a technical along with Green. Warriors rookie Quinten Post and Houston’s Jabari Smith Jr. flailed their arms at each other but avoided technicals upon replay review by the officials.
Then with 2:44 left in the quarter, tempers flared again. Green received a Flagrant 1 foul for pushing Tari Eason’s face to the ground and Eason also received a technical. Green was dribbling when Eason went for a steal and the ball got loose and both players hit the floor trying to corral it. Green’s left leg was on the Rockets forward’s neck.
Butler shot 7 for 12 in 40 minutes after he watched Curry overcome a slow start to finish with 36 points, nine assists and seven rebounds in Golden State's 104-93 victory Saturday night without him.
