Brown: Stopping Harden will be key.
WARRIORS, ROCKETS PLAY GAME 7 WITH FINALS BERTH ON THE LINE
HOUSTON >> Fear the Beard?
Sure. Just be sure not to foul the darn thing.
While Klay Thompson’s shooting bonanza earned credit for the late-game turnaround in Game 6, an unsung factor was the way the Warriors played disciplined defense against the Houston Rockets, and especially against James Harden, their bearded scoring machine.
With his head fakes (and occasional theatrics), no one in the NBA is better at drawing contact. Harden led the league in free-throw attempts during the regular season, his fourth consecutive season atop that category. But as the game swung late Saturday night, the whistles fell silent — and the crowd got loud.
“I thought that was a real key tonight: We didn’t reach,’’ Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “We reached so often in Game 5, and when they go to the line, it’s free points. It’s a rest for Harden and Eric Gordon. So we want to keep going, and we have to be disciplined enough not to reach and not commit fouls.”
How many foul shots for the NBA’s most prolific foul-shooter in the second half?
Zero.
“I was going to the basket,’’ Harden shrugged. “It will just be like that sometimes. But that won’t change. I’m going to continue going to the basket, continue to try to finish strong and we’ll see what happens.”
A key for the Warriors in Game 7 tonight will be playing with the same disciplined style they used in the second half of Game 6. Thompson, along with center Kevon Looney, Jordan Bell and even Nick Young, put in textbook minutes against Harden as part of an allaround defensive effort.
Wait a minute ... Nick Young?
The man known as “Swaggy P” said he owed his rapid defensive improvement to a member of his own personal Dream Team. Young said that Dennis Rodman, the two-time Defensive Player of the Year, appeared while he was sleeping and coached him up.
“Dennis Rodman came in my dream last night, and I was wondering why he came in my dream. He had the purple hair, all kinds of stuff,” Young said after Game 6.
“He told me, ‘Tomorrow you’re going to play a little defense,’ and I was like, ‘Nah that’s not my game, Dennis Rodman, why you in my
dream?’
“But it just so happened I played a little defense.”
Bell got help, too, although the voices in his head were a tad more tangible. In all, he notched playoff careerhighs of 21 minutes and 6 rebounds, and was a bench-best plus-10.
“I had a lot of people in my ear helping me,’’ Bell said. “David West helped me out a lot today, telling me to stop being so simple with defense, try to change it up a little bit, give them different looks. He and Zaza (Pachulia) were just talking to me, so they really encouraged me and helped me out a lot.”
The Warriors held the Rockets to 25 points in the second half, a team record for fewest points allowed in any half of a playoff game. They also set a team record by limiting Houston to nine points in the fourth quarter.
For an idea of just how dramatically things changed over the course of the night, just look at Houston’s score by quarters: 39, then 22, then 16, then 9.
So when someone asked Kerr about the hotshooting Thompson, the Warriors coach made a point of noting the other side of the floor.
“I thought Klay was amazing tonight, not just for 35 points and the nine 3s, but his defense,’’ Kerr said. “The guy’s a machine. He’s just so fit
physically. He seems to thrive in these situations. But he was fantastic.”
The Rockets played without point guard Chris Paul, and it showed. The Warriors harassed Houston into 21 turnovers, a 2018 playoff high.
The Warriors scored 23 points off those turnovers.
“If you turn the ball over 21 times against my little son’s team, they’ll probably beat you,’’ Houston guard Gerald Green said. “You can’t turn the ball over 21 times, especially not this team.”
Rockets forward Trevor Ariza said: “Turnovers are what got them back into the game. We were sloppy with the ball and they took advantage of it.”
In all, the Warriors improved to 6-2 in this year’s playoffs when holding an opponent to under 100 points. (They were 15-5 during the regular season.)
They tend to play their best defense after a loss, ratcheting up the intensity almost out of frustration. And when they can clamp down without fouling Harden, it’s almost an unbeatable combination.
“We like our formula against these guys,’’ Kerr said, “and we feel confident that we can carry this through to Game
7 on the road and continue to make things as difficult as possible on Houston without fouling.”