ADVANTAGE VANISHES
This is what we have all been waiting for. It was exciting. It was entertaining. It was true playoff basketball.
And, in the end, it was another Golden State Warriors clinic. The defending NBA champion came into the Rockets’ house Monday night — a playoff-ready and unusually loud house — and barely blinked.
The Rockets not only blinked, they flinched. And stumbled. And fumbled. And bumbled.
The Warriors looked like the best team in the NBA. Perhaps the Rockets took away the lesson that what they have done in the playoffs isn’t going to be good enough.
Golden State, playing in its fourth straight Western Conference finals, handled the situation much better than did the 65-win Rockets.
One-time Most Valuable Player Kevin Durant (37 points) pretty much matched James Harden (41 points), the soon-tobe MVP, bucket for bucket, and he got plenty of help from Klay Thompson (28 points) and Draymond Green (nine assists and nine rebounds), as the Warriors cruised to a 119-106 victory.
“Our guys have been here before,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Our guys have a lot of experience, they felt this, they relish it.”
The Rockets are better than they played Monday night. If they hope to beat the Warriors, they better be.
Curry not at his best
Golden State has won at least one road game in 18 straight playoff series. The Rockets have lost home-court advantage they spent so many months earning by posting the NBA’s best record.
On a night Stephen Curry was hardly deadly from long range (1-of-5 on 3-pointers), the Rockets needed to take advantage. Instead, they are in a 1-0 hole, making Wednesday’s Game 2 especially crucial, with Games 3 and 4 slated for Oakland, where Golden State has won 15 straight home playoff games, matching a record set by the Bulls.
The Rockets say their issues Monday were self-inflicted.
“There were too many times we had mental lapses,” coach Mike D’Antoni said. “If we want to beat them, we have to be mentally sharper.”
While Curry struggled from outside, Thompson more than picked up the slack, as time and time again the Rockets left him open outside the arc. The Rockets were probably fortunate he was 6-of-15 on 3-pointers.
Often this season, the Rockets have gotten away with mental mistakes on defense. In the playoffs, those defensive lapses have led to defeat.
The Rockets have given up at least 110 points in all three of their postseason loses. The Warriors are an offensive force, but it was too easy at times Monday.
The Toyota Center crowd showed up in force, early and loud. It was an atmosphere the Rockets have had for just a few occasions this season.
Whatever difference it made early, the Warriors handled it after falling behind by nine points midway through the first period.
After the game was tied at 56 at the half, Golden State took over in the third quarter, opening up as much as a 13-point lead before settling for an 87-80 edge entering the final period.
The Rockets trailed the Warriors by 13 points on the road in the season opener and came back to win that game.
That was seven months ago. There is a monumental difference between basketball in May and October.
A lazy turnover in October? No big deal, because it’s a long season.
Make the same ragged play in May and it could ignite a run that turns a game against you.
The Rockets had too many of those type turnovers Monday, including three embarrassing 24-second clock violations in the first half. The miscues were stressors they couldn’t overcome.
Golden State is not the type of team to which you can give such an edge. The 16 turnovers the Rockets committed were the most for them in the playoffs.
With the Warriors shooting well over 50 percent from the floor throughout the game, the Rockets could ill afford to waste so many possessions.
The Rockets knew it would be difficult to slow the Warriors. Durant can be unguardable, and he was all of that Monday, and the Rockets were at his mercy.
Harden a handful
But the Warriors had no answer for Harden on the other end. From step-back 3s to drives to the hole, Harden had his way with whoever was in front of him, and pretty much every Warrior got a taste in their switching defense.
Still, the Rockets never got a consistently good flow offensively. Harden, who added seven assists, and Chris Paul (23 points) had their moments, but not hardly enough.
Throw momentum-killing turnovers and a few missed layups into the mix and you have a recipe for defeat.
The Rockets’ first- and second-round opponents couldn’t keep up. The Warriors have no such trouble.
In fact, the Rockets are in trouble, just one game into the series.
“If we can win here, we can win there,” D’Antoni said. “It’s nice to have home court. We don’t have it, we’ve got to go get it.
“We lost it against Utah, and went back and got it. So, it’s not like we haven’t done it.”
Um, yeah, but the Jazz are not the Warriors. Not. At. All.
But before the Rockets can worry about taking back homecourt advantage, they have to take advantage of the home court, something they failed to do Monday night.