ON THE BRINK
Warriors lose their composure down the stretch, now trail Rockets 3-2
HOUSTON » The ball fumbled out of Draymond Green’s hands. Did the Warriors also fumble their championship fortunes?
The Warriors walked away with a 98- 94 loss to the Houston Rockets in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals on Thursday, an outcome filled with squandered opportunities down to the last moments that may leave the Warriors second- guessing themselves all summer. The Warriors trail the Rockets, 3-2, and Houston could close out the series in Game 6 on Saturday at Oracle Arena.
This marks the first time since acquiring Kevin Durant last summer that the Warriors faced a playoff elimination game. Do not bring such bad news, though, to coach Steve Kerr.
“We’re two wins from making the NBA Finals. It’s a pretty good worst situation to be in,” Kerr said. “We’re right there. We found some things tonight that worked for us. I’m extremely confident we’ll take care of business. We just have to be a little sharper.”
The Warriors might want to sharpen their late- game execution.
Unlike in the Warriors’ Game 4 loss, they called timeout for the final play when Rockets forward Trevor Ariza missed the second of two foul shots as the Rockets
nursed a 96- 94 lead with 9.1 seconds remaining.
First issue: Green grabbed the rebound, but the timeout was not granted until 6.7 seconds were left on the clock.
“The bal l kind of squirted loose,” Kerr said. “I was calling timeout. Sometimes they’ ll give it to you, but Draymond, because he fumbled it, it bounced. They said he took a dribble. That’s kind of a judgment call.”
Second issue: Stephen Curry said Kerr drew up a play for him to drive down the length of the court. Yet, Curry saw Houston center Clint Capela and guard James Harden approaching him. So, Curry threw a pass to Green past the timeline in hopes to create a give- and- go. The ball bounced off of Green’s knee, though, and Rockets guard Eric Gordon stole the ball with 2.4 seconds left.
Said Curry: “Things are happening so fast. You try to make a read and you think it’s right in that situation.”
Said Green: “We wanted to get the ball to Steph. We got the ball to Steph, and he hit it ahead to me and I fumbled the ball. Nothing more, nothing less.”
It did not end well for the Warriors in their other late- game moments, too.
After Green drilled a 3- pointer to cut the Rock- ets’ lead to 95- 91 with 1:15 remaining, Warriors reserve guard Quinn Cook missed a 26- foot 3- point attempt with 42.7 seconds left. Curry then missed a seven- foot floater with 22.4 seconds remaining.
“When I let it go, it felt good,” Curry said. “Just a little strong off the glass. I thought I could try to initiate a little bit of contact.”
All of which summed up an ugly night.
Durant had 29 points, but he shot 8- of-22 from the field and he missed all four of his attempts in the fourth quarter. Thompson had 23 points on 8- of-14 shooting, but he was fighting an injured left knee that happened in Game 4. Curry added 22 points on 8- of17 shooting, but he only went 2- of- 8 from 3- point range.
Though Harden had 19 points on 5- of-21 shooting and 0- of-11 from 3- point range, Rockets guard Chris Paul scored 18 of his 20 points in the second half, though he was diagnosed with a right hamstring injury afterwards. Gordon added 24 points off the bench, a sharp contrast to the Warriors’ four points among the reserves. It did not help the Warriors missed key veteran Andre Iguodala for the second consecutive game with a left knee injury. Nor did it help the Warriors committed 16 turnovers.
“Defense is high right now, but we’ve got to continue that effort and just make a couple more plays to take care of our turnover problem we’ve had the last two games and build some momentum back to our side,” Curry said. “We have an opportunity to do that.”
That might hinge, though, on if the Warriors can execute lategame plays much better in Game 6 than what they have shown in Games 4 and 5. Their season might depend on it.