⏩ Ann Killion: An avalanche by the Warriors buries the Rockets’ hopes of winning Game 3.
This is a series about force. About will. In each game, the winning team has crushed the loser’s spirit.
But just because the Warriors had their largest playoff victory ever, a 126-85 vivisection of Houston, doesn’t mean Game 4 will be easy.
Don’t count your Western Conference titles before they’re hatched.
“Game 4 will be incredibly difficult,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. “We know what’s coming. We’ve got to be ready. We’re right where we want to be but we’re not naive enough to think that what happened tonight is an indication of what’s coming.”
Or as Warriors guard Stephen Curry said, “I wish it was a cumulative score, but it doesn’t work that way.”
On Sunday night, the Warriors won by an extraordinary 41 points. They did what they expected of themselves and what most of us expected of them. What we know they’re capable of despite so many games of evidence to the contrary this season.
They played suffocating defense, shot over 50 percent, got Curry going (booty shake, shimmy and all), and are a step closer to a fourth consecutive trip to the NBA Finals.
It was an explosive performance. An “avalanche,” as Curry called it. The Warriors were so combustive that their mellow, polite star turned into Deion Sanders: Curry made a profane declaration of who exactly Oracle Arena belongs to.
“You’ve got to be your biggest fan sometimes,” he said a little sheepishly.
So far, this is a strange series despite the intriguing matchup between the league’s premier teams. Each game has been dominated by the team that could exert its will in the first half, and the opponent has never recovered. No game has been close. Margins of 13 points, 22 points and now 41.
Houston head coach Mike D’Antoni was as frustrated with his team as Kerr was after Game 2. He said the Rockets “played soft.” Houston’s Chris Paul and James Harden agreed.
On Sunday it was the Rockets’ turn to be sloppy and to shoot erratically. The Rockets had 20 turnovers that led to 28 Warriors points, and the Warriors held their giveaways to eight.
Houston’s stars were largely missing in action. Harden had the kind of game that caused Warriors fans to freak out over Curry for three days: He was 7-of-16 overall and 2-for-6 from three-point range. Paul was the 2-for-8 from long distance and 5-of-16 overall. The Rockets couldn’t hit from the perimeter. Stranger, they couldn’t finish at the rim.
“Those were double whammies,” D’Antoni said. “We miss at the rim and they go down and score.”
The Warriors had talked about the intensity of getting the Oracle crowd going and getting the fireworks started.
The crowd was into it from the start, knowing that the Warriors needed them.
“It’s kind of what we’ve grown to expect — when we get beat up pretty good we have that appropriate fear,” Warriors forward Draymond Green said.
The crowd helped fuel the team’s fast start. The Warriors had an early 9-0 run, and Houston did little to stop it.
“The air kind of seeped out the balloon,” D’Antoni said.
In the third quarter, the balloon popped completely. The Warriors opened with a 10-0 run and then the Curry show started, to the delight of the crowd that had been urging him on all game.
After achieving the desired split in Houston, the Warriors absolutely couldn’t afford to give back home-court advantage to the Rockets in Game 3.
Now they have a 2-1 series lead with the possibility of two more games at home. If they continue to take care of business at home on Tuesday they could clinch a trip to the Finals next Saturday in Game 6. (Of course, they could also do it in Houston on Thursday in Game 5 or Monday in Game 7).
Will we ever get a close game in this series? One where the teams trade punches instead of popping each other’s balloons?
Maybe. But Curry has an idea of how to make sure the right Warriors, the spiritcrushing Warriors, show up.
“Coach will come in and play the Game 2 film and say, ‘Don’t do what you’re doing right now,’ ” Curry said. “That should be a good motivator.”
Next is the game Kerr calls the swing game in a series — the team with the 2-1 advantage comes out of it either dominating or back at square one.
Game 4. Coming to Curry’s house Tuesday night.