Texas temblor: Warriors blow down the house as Rockets lose advantage
HOUSTON — Ignore the reports from the U.S. Geological Survey. There was a huge Bay Area earthquake on Monday night, but it wasn’t the one centered in Oakland. It was what was felt here in Texas, where the Warriors rocked the NBA’s top seed to its core.
Can you overestimate the importance of the Warriors coming into Toyota Center and thrashing the Rockets in Game 1? The final minutes of the titanic battle were played out in front of emptying stands and with a demoralized Rockets team flailing hopelessly.
It was the first time in the Steve Kerr era that the Warriors had to start a series on the road. And it worked out just fine, thanks.
“I think it was a good challenge for us,” Draymond Green said. “It’s so much of the same stuff over and over, you take it for granted. This series, it’s kind of cool. But we won Game 1, now we’ll try to win two. We’re not going to relax and say, ‘Oh, we won one.’ ”
They won’t, but the cold fact is the Warriors stole away the thing the Rockets had strived for
all season. The thing they were so proud of achieving. The Rockets took hold of the top seed early in the regular season, clung to it with all their might, crowed about it. But now the benefits of their lofty perch have, for the time being, vanished.
“Our focus is on Game 2,” Chris Paul said.
Even though Game 1 couldn’t have started out any better for the Rockets. The Toyota Center was vibrating with anticipation and a pumped-up crowd.
The Warriors withstood a furious opening few minutes that felt like a Game 7 of the Finals. James Harden scored the Rockets’ first nine points, pushing his team to a 9-2 lead. Green got a technical 67 seconds into the game. The Warriors seemed to be teetering.
But they didn’t. They didn’t even blink.
“At the end of the day, it helps to have gone through that experience a couple of times,” Stephen Curry said. “It’s how you react to the pressure. We didn’t get rattled. That could have been a deciding moment right there. But we settled the game down and were only down one at the end of the first quarter. The experience helps, especially on the road.”
James Harden, as expected, was spectacular. He scored 41 points, at will. But as great as Harden was, the Warriors had a match for him. Kevin Durant was lethal again, scoring 37 points.
For a while it was a mano a mano duel, a heavyweight fight with the two stars slugging it out. Harden three, Durant midrange pull-up, Harden dunk, Durant three. The starters can’t play all 48 minutes but each looked like he wanted to. When Kerr took out Durant, he got an argument from the forward and quickly put him back on the floor.
But Harden couldn’t do it all.
“I’ll go talk to him and tell him he’s got to get 55 next time,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni joked.
Both defenses know they have to pick their poison. They can’t stop everything each team offers. But it was clear on Monday that the Warriors are the better defensive team — not only their vaunted defenders like Green and Andre Iguodala, but getting major minutes from playoff rookie Kevon Looney, who helped force two Houston shot-clock violations in the first half.
And the Warriors are the deeper, more talented offensive team, with more options.
D’Antoni was beating himself up for leaving Klay Thompson so wide open. Thompson, who scored 28 points, attempted 15 threepointers. He was beating himself up for only hitting six of them, but it was clear he was feeling his stroke.
At one point he hit a three and raised three fingers and blew a kiss to the crowd with the other two. Another time he was left so alone that he received the ball, looked around, dribbled once, and drained another.
“He stole like 10 of my threes,” Curry joked. “I want them back.”
In one game, the Warriors accomplished the week’s main goal: They are assured of a split on the road.
“It was a big win tonight, but there’s a lot of work to do,” Curry said. “We’ve got to come back and be a little greedy and try to get another one.”
Thompson remembered the last time the Warriors started a playoff series on the road, in 2014 against the Clippers, when the Warriors were young. They stole Game 1 at Staples Center, then got blown out in Game 2 by 40 points.
But that’s ancient history, and this is a vastly different Warriors team, with experience and championship DNA. They know when to turn it up.
In recent days, Kerr has said his team is as locked in as it has been all year. He’s not surprised. As a player he went through long, consecutive playoff runs, where there was little time off and the regular season dragged.
“It’s a feeling of, ‘Are we there yet?’ ” Kerr said. “Like you say to your parents when you’re driving cross country. ‘Are we there yet? Are we there yet?’ That’s what it felt like my players were asking all season.”
They’re there now. And the Warriors’ arrival shook Houston to its core.
Ann Killion is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: akillion@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @annkillion