Curry leads Durant-less Warriors past Houston
Curry, Thompson lead scorers; Green has triple-double
HOUSTON — The Warriors aren’t obsessed with beating the Rockets.
Not because Houston isn’t a serious threat in the Western Conference, but because Golden State isn’t overly concerned about any team. Such is the luxury that comes with having the NBA’s most loaded roster: The Warriors know that they can beat anyone on their schedule if they’re at their best.
Playing at full potential has been tricky, however. In escaping the Toyota Center on Thursday night with a 124-114 win over the Rockets, Golden State was again forced to wrestle with the fact that its margin of error in the West could be smaller than it was in any of the previous three seasons.
Though the Warriors were without forward Kevin Durant (right calf strain), Houston was minus its best scorer (MVP front-runner James Harden) and best defender (forward Luc Mbah a Moute). It still took 14 lead changes and 10 ties before Golden State finally wore down those depleted Rockets in the final minutes.
“They’ve been playing amazing all regular season, so you have to assume they’re going to be one of the last teams standing in the Western Conference,” Warriors guard Stephen Curry said of Houston. “We hope to be there, too.”
The Warriors followed the game plan, patrolling the perimeter and forcing Houston into 33 missed three-pointers. Curry and Klay Thompson led the way with 29 and 28 points, respectively, and Draymond Green (17 points, 10 assists, 14 rebounds) set a franchise record with his 21st career tripledouble.
The problem was that Houston capitalized on open driving lanes, hit timely midrange jumpers, and mined big nights out of Eric Gordon (30 points, seven assists), Gerald Green (29 points), Chris Paul (28 points) and Clint Capela (15 points, 10 rebounds). It wasn’t until Curry hit a layup with 41 seconds left to put his team up 13 that red-clad fans filed toward the exits.
“The biggest thing is when they go on a run, we have to respond, and we can’t get our heads down,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. “There were some wild swings in that game, and I thought both teams competed and responded every time the other made a run.”
Golden State eliminated Houston from the playoffs in the 2015 conference finals before ousting the Rockets again in the first round in 2016. To bolster Houston’s title chances, general manager Daryl Morey shipped a package of assets in June to the Clippers for Paul.
The move helped pave the way for a 25-4 start to the season that had many believing the Rockets could push the Warriors in a seven-game series. In the two teams’ only meeting to that point, Houston had stormed back from a 17point deficit for a 122-121 win in the opener.
In an interview last month on ESPN Radio’s “Ryen Russillo Show,” Morey said that topping Golden State is “the only thing we think about.” It is an obsession rooted in the numbers.
An analytics guru, Morey said that, according to his research, there is a 90 percent chance the Rockets would need to get by the Warriors to win an NBA title. Asked the next day about Morey’s comments, Kerr said: “I don’t wake up in the morning thinking about them. I think about what I’m going to have for breakfast.”
The Warriors may not be obsessed with Houston, but they have reason to be wary of it come the postseason.
“Probably not the first or second round,” Thompson said, “but they’re definitely a team we’ll probably have to go through to do what we want to do.”
Midway through the fourth quarter, Warriors center David West sprained his left ankle. He will be evaluated Friday.