Warriors rolling while Rockets fail to launch

The Greatest Second Round in NBA Playoff History, as one know-itall scribe had the temerity to describe it last week, did not get off to the greatest start.

Yet things thankfully picked up late Tuesday night, when two of the game’s biggest stars — Stephen Curry and James Harden — injected some much-needed nobility into the proceedings by playing through their gnarly injuries in the Golden State Warriors’ 115-109 Game 2 triumph over the Houston Rockets.

It was Curry and especially the under-fire Harden, more than anyone, who helped nudge the league’s marquee series away from a suffocating, dispiriting debate about how the game is officiated when the Warriors and the Rockets meet.

Curry shrugged off a nasty-looking dislocated middle finger on his nonshooting hand, which he suffered in the opening quarter, and finished with 20 points despite his 3-for-13 struggles from three-point range. Harden, meanwhile, was left with a scary laceration on his left eyelid and two bloodshot eyes after taking an inadvertent rake to the face from Draymond Green, but he amassed team-high 29 points through blurry vision despite squinting and wincing for the rest of the evening.

“I didn’t even notice the officiating,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “I don’t think anybody did. I think that’s the best compliment you can give them.”

“This game,” Kerr added, “was just about basketball.”

The new and more serious issue in this second-round showdown between the Warriors, the two-time defending champions, and the Houston team that took Golden State to seven games in last season’s Western Conference final is that the Rockets, trailing by 2-0, are already running out of time to make this a series.

ALSO LATE TUESDAY

Bucks 123, Celtics 102: Giannis Antetokounmpo had 29 points and 10 rebounds, Khris Middleton made seven of host Milwaukee’s 20 three-pointers, and the Bucks evened the secondround playoff series at a game apiece.

Antetokounmpo bounced back from a sub-par performance in Game 1, repeatedly attacking the rim with powerful drives to the basket. He went 7 for 16 from the floor and 13 of 18 at the foul line.

It was an important turnaround for Milwaukee after Antetokounmpo had 22 points on 7-for-21 shooting in Game.

Middleton finished with 28 points. Bledsoe, who was held to six points in the opener, finished with 21 points and five assists.