It wasn't the prettiest win, but the self-proclaimed Batman and Robin duo of Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler stole Game 1. The Golden State Warriors edged out the Houston Rockets in a 95-85 rock fight. Curry finished with a game-high 31 points on 12-of-19 shooting. Next to him, Butler collected a historical statline with 25 points, seven rebounds, six assists, five steals, the second 25/5/5/5 playoff game this century.

After the hard-fought win, Butler was astonished by Curry's brilliant playoff performance.

“Like I always say, Batman comes out of nowhere. You never see him coming, and then he just falls from the sky, from a building, behind a door, and does some incredible things,” Butler said. “He's going to be the reason that we do win it all, we all know that. We've got to protect him at all costs.”

It was another vintage Curry playoff performance, one that the Warriors sorely needed. With both offenses bogged down the whole night, Curry hit tough jumper after tough jumper, including an unbelievable fadeaway corner three to cap off a huge Dubs run in the third quarter.

In the same post-game interview, Butler pointed to the four days off as crucial to the Warriors' preparation for this game.

“Just rest,” Butler said when asked about getting some time off this week. “Getting some rest, clearing our minds, knowing that we got one job to do: come in here and compete and try to steal one on the road.”

Moses and Podz come up huge down the stretch

Aside from the heroics of Curry and Butler, the young guys stepped up to the moment for Golden State. While Moody only finished with seven points on 2-of-5 shooting, he had five clutch points late in the fourth. He buried a big midrange jumper to keep the lead at six with six minutes left in the game. He followed that up with a huge corner 3-pointer in transition after Fred VanVleet hit a three of his own to cut the lead to four with 2 minutes remaining.

Podziemski, on the other hand, got it done on defense. He was key in the Warriors' undersized rebounding efforts, coming away with eight rebounds and two steals. He also drew a big foul on Amen Thompson on a floater and turned to the Rockets bench and dared them to challenge the call. Ime Udoka did and the Rockets lost the challenge, forfeiting their second-to-last timeout late in the game.

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After the win, Draymond Green had a ton of praise for the efforts of Moses Moody and Brandin Podziemski.

“It was huge,” Green said. “To see those guys step up the way they did, Moses hit a huge three and BP made big plays down the stretch, [especially] getting fouled on the play where [Amen] Thompson tried to take a charge. It was great to see those guys step up to the challenge, and we need that to get three more wins.”

Keys to the series moving forward

It's clear after one game between the Warriors and Rockets that this series is going to be a slog on offense. But what separated the two teams in this game was the star power. The Dubs got 56 points from their two best players in Curry and Butler. And while the Sengün gave Houston 26 points, he had no accompanying star to help him match the scoring output of the Warriors' stars.

But if there's one cause of concern for the Warriors, it is the rebounding. The Rockets fought ferociously on the boards to get back in the game, using the twin towers lineup of Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams. The Rockets outrebounded the Warriors 52-30 and 22-to-6 on the offensive boards. It kept Houston dangerously alive despite Curry's hot shooting.

In his press conference, Steve Kerr likened this Houston team's brute force style to 90s basketball.

“They're not a typical modern NBA team in terms of spreading you out, playing fast, and shooting a million threes. They are kind of old school. In many ways, they are in the image of their coach. Ime [Udoka] was a grinder as a player. He was tough and physical. That's what Houston is,” Kerr said. “In this series, you can see they know where their advantage lies. It's in playing Adams a lot, sometimes with Sengün and having everyone crash [the rebounds]. It felt like 1997 out there. It was a completely different NBA game than what we are used to. We've got to be ready for that, this is what this series will be.”