Giannis leads All-Star balloting
HOUSTON — Stephen Curry is well aware that Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey has crafted his team specifically to try and beat the Golden State Warriors.
"As much as he talks about it, yeah it's hard not to," Curry said. "It's pretty ... clear."
But on Thursday night with the Rockets missing the most important piece on their team in James Harden, Chris Paul and his supporting cast were not enough to overcome the defending champions.
Curry scored 29 points, Klay Thompson had 28 and the Warriors pulled away late in the fourth quarter for a 124114 victory.
Draymond Green added a triple-double with 17 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists to become the franchise career leader in triple-doubles with 21. It was his second this season to move him past Tom Gola.
The Warriors extended their road winning streak to nine games and have won an NBA-best 16 road games this season.
The teams stayed close through most of the game, but the Warriors had a seven-point lead with about 3 1/2 minutes left. They scored the next five points, highlighted by a 3 from Curry, to make it 120-109 and send many of the home fans streaming for the exits.
The Rockets got 30 points from
Eric Gordon, and Gerald Green came off the bench to score 29 and tie a career high with eight 3-pointers as they played their second game without Harden, who is out for at least two weeks with a hamstring strain.
"We've got to get better as a team," Houston coach Mike D'Antoni said.
"We're just not quite there defensively, communication, all the stuff we can control we're not doing."
The Warriors were short-handed, too, playing without Kevin Durant, who missed the game with strained right calf. But Andre Iguodala returned after sitting out Wednesday night with back and hip strains and had 10 points and eight assists.
"Obviously they were missing their best player without James so we felt like there was an opportunity for us," Thompson said.
Curry added nine rebounds and five assists and a steal in his third game back after missing 11 with a sprained right ankle.
Golden State led by 10 after a dunk by David West with about 7 1/2 minutes remaining. The Rockets scored the next five points, with a 3-pointer from Gerald Green, to get to 108-103, but the Warriors scored the next five points to go up by 10 again.
The Warriors were up by 3 after three and opened the fourth quarter with an 8-1 run to make it 101-91 with about 10 minutes left.
Chris Paul re-entered the game after that and he helped get things going when he found Gordon for a 3-pointer which started a 7-2 run that cut the lead to 10398. Paul finished with 28 points, nine assists and seven rebounds.
Gerald Green's second 3-pointer in less than a minute put Houston up by two midway through the third quarter. The Warriors scored the next seven points, with a 3-pointer from Thompson, to take a 79-74 lead about a minute later.
They didn't stay on top for long though as the Rockets scored the next 11 points to go up 85-79. Gerald Green delighted the crowd when he knocked down a 3 from the corner before being fouled Iguodala and crashing to the ground. He also made the free throw.
The Warriors ended a 2 1/2 minute scoring drought on a dunk by Kevon Looney before Curry added a layup. But Gerald Green pushed the lead to 88-83 when he banked in another 3-pointer.
The Warriors closed out the quarter with a 10-2 spurt, capped by 3s from NickYoung and Curry, to take a 93-90 lead into the fourth quarter.
The Rockets led 6362 at halftime.
NEW YORK — The Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo is the leading vote-getter in the first fan returns of NBA AllStar voting released on Thursday.
Antetokounmpo, who earned his first All-Star nod last season, received 863,416 votes to edge the Cleveland Cavaliers' fourtime NBA Most Valuable Player LeBron James (856,080) by 7,336 votes for the top spot in the Eastern Conference and overall after the first 12 days of fan voting.
Antetokounmpo, 23, has enjoyed a stellar start to the 2017-18 campaign. He is the league's second in scoring, averaging 29.1 points per game, and ranks in the top 20 in blocks, steals and rebounds.
Four-time All-Star Kyrie Irving of the Boston Celtics leads among East guards with 802,834 votes - putting him third overall in the voting.
In the Western Conference, the Golden State Warriors' Kevin Durant leads with 767,402 votes and teammate Stephen Curry is next with 735,115 -- putting them fourth and fifth overall.
The 67th NBA All-Star Game will take place on Sunday, February 18 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Under a new All-Star Game format that replaces the traditional matchup between the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference, the team rosters will be chosen by two captains from the pool of starters and reserves.
The captains will be the All-Star starter from each conference who receives the most fan votes in his conference, but they can choose their players without respect to conference affiliation.
The All-Star Game starters will be revealed on January 18.
For the second consecutive year, NBA players and basketball media will join fans in selecting the starters.
Fan balloting accounts for 50 percent of the vote, while all current players and a media panel will account for 25 percent each.