Three stars from Friday's NBA playoffs

Houston Rockets guard Fred VanVleet | 29 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists

If you're looking for a reason the Warriors-Rockets series is heading to a Game 7 Sunday, the easiest answer if Fred VanVleet's revival. After averaging 11.3 points, four assists and 3.7 rebounds for the first three games while shooting 11-for-41, the veteran guard caught fire against the team he tormented in the 2019 NBA Finals.

VanVleet poured in 29 points Friday night while going 6-for-9 from behind the arc. While the Warriors seemingly considered VanVleet an afterthought midway through the series, his offensive explosion worried Warriors coach Steve Kerr enough to start defensive ace Gary Payton II in Game 6.

That didn't slow down VanVleet, but it did slow the Warrors' offense, as Payton scored only five points in his 20 minutes. To compensate for Payton's lackluster offense, Kerr played Buddy Hield alongside Payton, and Hield went scoreless, while normal starters Brandin Podziemski and Moses Moody put up 23 points combined in limited bench minutes.

When the Warriors closed to two points after three quarters, VanVleet had a four-point play to start the fourth and set the tone for a dominant final quarter for the Rockets. Six years after winning a title with the Toronto Raptors, VanVleet is still killing Golden State.

Houston Rockets center Alperen Sengun | 21 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists

Houston's All-Star center is only 22 years old, but he feels like a seasoned veteran in his first playoff series. He's averaging 20.8 points, 11.5 rebounds and 5.3 assists in the series, along with two steals. Sengun is disrupting the Warriors as the fulcrum of the Rockets offense but he also disrupted Golden State's offense with three steals Friday night. 

For a defensive-oriented Rockets team, the combination of Sengun and VanVleet is keeping its offense afloat.

Sengun is sometimes called "Baby Jokic," thanks to his passing and scoring acumen akin to three-time MVP Nikola Jokic. In this series, he's stymying former Defensive Player of the Year Draymond Green, and depending on how the weekend's Game 7s go, he might advance further than "Grown Up Jokic" does.

Golden State Warriors forward Jimmy Butler | 27 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists

Arguably, "Jimmy Buckets" should have aimed for more buckets after a game where he shot 7-for-17 and went 12-for-14 from the foul line. In a series that's been defined by Houston's physical defensive play, Butler has been the one Warriors player able to take advantage and turn their aggression into free throws.

Unfortunately, the buckets weren't there for Butler in the fourth quarter as he went 0-for-5 and Steph Curry shot 1-for-7. He's going to need to bring four quarters of buckets in Game 7 if his new team is going to keep the "Playoff Jimmy" magic going for another round.