Rockets respond
tThompson scored 20 of his 26 points in Kevin Durant added 22 points and
shooting for the Warriors.
“Game two is always the hardest when you come back from injury,” Kerr said of Curry’s struggles. “He didn’t look as sharp with his movement. Obviously he didn’t make his shots, but more than that it was just about the energy, the legs. But that’ll come.” Western conference top seeds Houston, stung
responded with a vengeance in Salt Lake City, where they thrashed the Utah Jazz 113-92.
Houston took a 2-1 lead in the Western Conference series which continues on Sunday at Utah.
James Harden scored 25 points with 12 assists for Houston. Eric Gordon added another 25 points in a merciless display by a Rockets team that led the league with 65 regular-season victories.
Royce O’Neale led the Jazz with 17
down game- two standouts Donovan Mitchell and Joe Ingles.
Mitchell connected on just four of 16
with six points on two-of-10 shooting.
“We didn’t give up any easy looks,” Harden said. “We contested every shot.”
After a game- two performance that Harden described as “lackadaisical,” Houston came out with laser-like focus,
seven possessions.
the Jazz reeling—which was just what the Rockets had in mind.
“We were going to be the aggressor,” Harden said of the team’s mindset after their stumble at home. “Game two, they dictated the tempo, they came out and kind of punched us in the
“So we wanted to kind of do that same thing—and we did.”