Golden State Warriors (31-6) at Houston Rockets (28-12)
Tip-off: Saturday, January 17th, 2015 – 5:00PM PDT
Location: Toyota Center, Houston, TX
TV: CSN Bay Area, NBA TV | Radio: KNBR 680 AM
Livetweet: @LetsGoWarriors #LetsGoWarriorsLive
Projected Starting Lineups:
Warriors
PG: Stephen Curry (23.2 PPG, 4.8 RPG, 7.9 APG)
SG: Klay Thompson (21.6 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 3.0 APG)
SF: Harrison Barnes (10.7 PPG, 6.2 RPG, 1.5 APG)
PF: Draymond Green (11.6 PPG, 8.1 RPG, 3.7 APG)
C: Andrew Bogut (6.8 PPG, 8.8 RPG, 2.8 APG)
Head Coach: Steve Kerr (31-6, .838)
Rockets
PG: Patrick Beverley (11.8 PPG, 4.8 RPG, 3.2 APG)
SG: James Harden (27.0 PPG, 5.7 RPG, 6.8 APG)
SF: Trevor Ariza (12.9 PPG, 5.6 RPG, 2.1 APG)
PF: Donatas Motiejunas (11.0 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 1.7 APG)
C: Dwight Howard (16.9 PPG, 12.1 RPG, 1.4 APG)
Head Coach: Kevin McHale (200-164, .549)
Last Times Out
PREVIOUS WARRIORS GAME: On Friday, 1/16/2015, Golden State suffered a 127-115 loss in Oklahoma City. Thompson led the team with 32 points, followed by Speights (20), Curry (19) and Barnes (18).
PREVIOUS ROCKETS GAME: On Thursday, 1/15/2014, the Rockets defeated the Thunder, 112-101, in Houston.
PREVIOUS WARRIORS-ROCKETS MATCHUP: Golden State hosted the Rockets and dealt Houston a 105-93 loss despite a game-high 34 points from Harden. Klay Thompson led the Warriors with 21, and both Curry and Barnes finished with 20 a piece.
PREVIOUS WARRIORS-ROCKETS MATCHUP IN HOUSTON: With Howard and Beverley out for Houston, the Warriors won 98-87 led by Curry’s 34 points and 10 rebounds. Golden State limited the Rockets to just 13 points in the third quarter.
Game Notes
- “Other candidates such as Marc Gasol and James Harden may be putting up bigger numbers in certain categories such as scoring and rebounding, but they may not have as well-rounded a stat sheet night in and night out.” — Ryan Viera, LetsGoWarriors.com
- “Dwight Howard probable with strained right knee.” — Diamond Leung, Bay Area News Group”
- “Harden has scored 33.7 per game and made 28 of 50 from beyond the arc over his last six at home, while Ariza has gone 18 for 39 from long range to help the Rockets win five of their last six overall.
‘That’s the beauty of this thing,’ Harden said. ‘We could be so good, but at times we have mental lapses where we let teams get comfortable.’
Harden scored 34 in a 105-93 loss at Golden State on Dec. 10 after he had 22 on 8-of-24 shooting in a 98-87 home defeat Nov. 8.
The Rockets have struggled with a 38.1 overall field-goal percentage and 24.7 mark from beyond the arc in the two meetings. Ariza has totaled 25 points while going just 8 for 31 from the field against the Warriors.
Houston, though, has allowed just 86.3 points per game and a 28.4 3-point percentage while winning by an average of 20.2 during its run at home. The Rockets also have forced the Warriors into 20.5 turnovers per game and a combined 17-for-51 (33.3 percent) performance from 3-point range.” — Taylor Bechtold, AP/STATS
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
