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In the first Golden State home playoff loss since the 2016 NBA Finals, Steph Curry had 28 points, including going 6-of-13 from range. Kevin Durant had 27 points, 12 rebounds and 3 assists.
The Rockets came out in the first quarter looking like they’d given up. They missed shot after shot, and fell down 12-0. At one point, Harden had a wide open three, nobody even kind of close to him, and he just froze.
But something happened in the second quarter: the Rockets, and Harden especially, remembered how to play basketball. Not only that: they remembered how to play it extremely well. The buckets started falling in their favor, and the Warriors seemed to get overwhelmed. Harden dunked on Draymond Green so hard, he’s probably still feeling it.Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni took some heat for saying the pressure was mostly on the Warriors in these Western Conference finals, even though Houston is down two games to one.
“That worked out well, didn’t it?” joked D’Antoni, before a crucial Game 4 matchup here in Oakland.Tonight marks the biggest game in 20 years for the Houston Rockets.
Not since 1998 have the Rockets played in a meaningful game this late in the postseason. That game ended with John Stockton ending Houston’s season in front of their fans at the old Compaq Center.
Hopefully history doesn’t repeat itself. The Golden State Warriors will try desperately to send the home fans home feeling like the series is over. The magnitude of this game cannot be overstated: handing the Warriors homecourt advantage back and being forced to win again in Oakland is a death sentence for the Rockets. Sure, we know they can win at Oracle, but a little wiggle room is required.
It will be impossible for the Rockets to maintain that same fourth quarter defensive intensity for 48 minutes, but Houston knows the benchmark. They have to play at that level for a couple of stretches. Furthermore, the offense has to keep attacking the basket. Draymond Green and Kevin Durant are deterrents at the rim, but Houston found success attacking the basket at times in Game 4. James Harden in particular used the floater to great effect in the first half. Finally, Houston missed a lot of shots in the fourth quarter but that was more due to fatigue than anything else. The Rockets were getting good looks within their offense, and that’s a great sign.
Andre Iguodala and Klay Thompson are questionable to play in Game 5, but at this point we all know that’s bullshit. Both will be available and thanks to the miracles of modern medicine, both will be 100%. The Warriors will start their Death Lineup and those guys will play 40+ minutes if needed.FINALLY a close-finishing Conference Finals game.
Houston proved its crunchtime chops to steal a 95-92 game four thriller and square its series with Golden State at 2-2.
The Rockets will return to Houston for game five knowing they can secure an NBA Finals appearance with two home wins.
James Harden (30 points) and Chris Paul (27 points) were enormous for the visitors as they fought back from a 10-point deficit with a quarter to play to eke out an unlikely win.
Harden struggled after a 24-point first half but the Rockets led 94-89 after an Eric Gordon triple with 2:27 to play.
The only scores from that point came from the foul line as Kevin Durant passed up an opportunity to take the game-tying shot with the Warriors down 94-92 with just seconds remaining.
Durant passed the ball to Klay Thompson, who was unable to get an effective shot off. “That’s not the reason why we lost the game,” Durant said. “But I definitely wish I had that last play back.”
Paul rebounded Thompson’s miss just before the final buzzer sounded for the first time and pounded the ball down in delight. A replay review ensued and it was determined Shaun Livingston fouled Paul before the game ended, so Paul made a free throw with 0.5 seconds left.
Curry couldn’t get off a final attempt before the buzzer.
The Warriors scored just 12 points in the fourth quarter as their offence fell apart. “I thought this was the highest level we’ve ever played defensively,” Houston coach Mike D’Antoni said.
It snapped a run of 16 consecutive home playoff wins for Golden State.
Steph Curry scored 28 points and Kevin Durant added 27 points and 12 rebounds but the defending champions — who lost Andre Iguodala to a knee injury before the game — missed their final six shots from the floor. “We just ran out of gas,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.After seven one-sided contests across the East and West, an eighth appeared on the cards as Houston missed its first eight shots of game four against Golden State to trail 12-0.
But the Rockets responded in outstanding fashion in a 34-18 second quarter to take a seven-point halftime lead.
Harden was exceptional as he enjoyed arguably the greatest half of basketball of his career. The MVP favourite had 24 points, three assists and two offensive rebounds and also made a huge defensive contribution with three steals and two blocks. Oh, and he dunked all over Draymond Green.
But just like he did in game three, Curry took over in the third quarter. After 18 points in the third quarter of game three, Curry pumped in 17 in game four to turn a 53-46 deficit into a 80-70 lead.
But the Rockets responded again as we finally saw some meaningful fourth quarter minutes, minutes that didn’t go so well for Golden State.Steph Curry repeated his third quarter heroics of game three, hitting four three-pointers to help the Warriors snatch the lead back.
After exploding with an 18-point third quarter two days ago, Curry scored 11 consecutive points to make it 68-65.
