This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Houston Rockets at the Golden State Warriors, Game 1 of the 2015 Western Conference Finals.
3RD QUARTER: Release The Kraken!
Neither team could buy a bucket until over two minutes into the second half, as Draymond Green got a pass underneath the hoop on a drive from Stephen Curry and made the double-clutch layup.
The Warriors kept their slim margin over the Rockets. Curry got a beautiful floater to drop, an and-one as Jason Terry fouled him from behind, but Steph missed the free throw.
Curry then hit two triples (one of them was later ruled a long two on officials’ review), sandwiching a couple of James Harden free throws, but after a Green jumper from the left elbow, Josh Smith spun in the lane and found Harden open from the left corner.
Klay Thompson then curled around Andrew Bogut for a jumper, but then got called for his third personal foul as Harden faded from the right elbow on the next play. Klay took a seat.
On a putback of a Jason Terry missed jumper, Terrence Jones missed twice, bothered by Ezeli and Green inside, and Curry made the Rockets pay with a triple from the right side fed by Green.
Ezeli continued his imprint on the game, boarding Steph’s next miss from downtown then finishing with a gathering bankshot, and getting fouled on the rebound on another one.
Curry missed another trey, then Corey Brewer spun past Green, but Ezeli helped disrupt the layup again. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr opted for Leandro Barbosa, subbing out Curry, with 1:39 to go, and looked like a genius as Green immediately spun around Jones and fed Barbosa for a right-side triple.
Jones, who had earlier very non-Rocket-like passed up a wide-open trey that was in rhythm from the top, took the ball to the hole on the left side, but got denied once again by Ezeli. Jones got his own putback again, and as if time was repeating itself, got disrupted one more time at the rim by Festus.
Kerr then employed Hack-A-Capela, but Capela hit one of two throws with 1:05 left.
Ezeli wasn’t done, as he received the entry and, as the Rockets collapsed on him, found Harrison Barnes on the weakside. With the defense shifted, Barnes went strong to his right with the available lane, and slammed it home with two hands as the Rockets couldn’t recover.
Meanwhile, Ezeli was still active on the offensive end, getting fouled down low on a rebound by Harden, but Festus connected on just 2-for-4 from the line. Harden ended the quarter at the buzzer with a reverse layup that trickled in.
The Warriors took an 84-79 lead into the final stanza.
Harden led the Rockets with 18, Ariza had 17, while Curry had 23 and Klay 13. Livingston still had his 16 from the halftime break.
Meanwhile, Dwight Howard played nearly 9 minutes in the third but was questionable to return with a bruised left knee.
4TH QUARTER: Harden
Shaun Livingston continued his great play off the bench on the night with a tip-in after Barbosa also missed a tip-in of a Bogut lefty baby hook, but the Rockets answered with Clint Capela‘s two-handed lay-in putback of a missed Brewer trey, then Brewer crossing into the lane with the dribble past and over Andre Iguodala.
After Green got a right side drive over Pablo Prigioni on the “ATO” (after-timeout play), Harden said enough was enough and took over for Houston.
It started with a left stiff arm — not enough for a whistle — into Thompson for a stepback, then another stepback inside the paint, then yet another stepback over a draped Klay for a swish up top.
That brought the Rockets back to 90-89, Warriors, with 8:09 to go.
Iguodala got the ball on the right baseline and dished back out to Barnes for a triple, but Harden eventually answered yet again with a swinging-arm lefty banker.
After Klay made two free throws getting fouled by Brewer on a cut to the hole, Kerr sent the double-team to Harden, but the MVP runner-up found Josh Smith in the right corner for three.
Curry went down the right side for a quick two points, but Harden once again got another stepback over Klay and it was tied, 97-97, with 5:27 remaining.
A mandatory timeout ensued and Kerr got Barnes a two-hand alley-oop slam fed by Thompson on the ATO, then Barnes went vertical again as Curry’s reverse layup went too hard and the Black Falcon appeared, soaring over Trevor Ariza and Jones for a two-hand put-in.
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
Livingston then found Curry at the rim as Ariza fell down and got entangled with Green on the left wing.
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
Rockets head coach Kevin McHale was irate at the refs, to no avail, and called a timeout.
Out of the timeout, Jones was once again stopped at the rim by a converging Green and Barnes, and Steph made Houston pay big-time with a three, shaking off Ariza in transition from the left wing, to put the Warriors up, 106-97.
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
Klay could have put a nail in the Rockets’ coffin, but missed a wide open trey from the right wing that rolled out, after Curry was in transition and put the brakes on everybody. Curry then thought he stole the ball cleanly on a timed poke of Brewer’s dribble at halfcourt, but got called for the foul.
That didn’t stop Barnes from poking the ball out from Ariza after the ball got swung to him and Ariza drove hard left-handed from the right corner into the paint. Livingston got stuck on the left perimeter and called timeout.
On the ATO, Draymond was open and squared up for a triple from the left elbow, but Curry was wide open under the hoop and Green delivered the assist to go up 108-97 with two minutes to go.
Klay had a couple of forgettable plays down the stretch, turning the ball over on an ill-advised lefty drive as Ariza smothered him, then getting another dribble tapped out and turning it over on a shotclock violation as he heaved an airball.
Still, the Warriors had a 108-103 cushion with 47.0 seconds remaining, and Harden made a bad pass to Smith on the bounce that went into the baseline seats.
Steph scissored pass the defense and found Green underneath, but Draymond missed it, missed the putback, then got another o-reb but tossed the ball from the baseline out and Ariza intercepted. Iguodala and Klay raced back, but Ariza played pickle with Jason Terry on the left perimeter and Ariza drilled the corner trey with Klay helplessly caught in between.
With 14.6 to go, the Warriors led only 108-106.
The Rockets had to foul, finally as McHale’s no-foul late strategy worked, but Curry was fouled and made both throws at 11.8, and Harden missed a trey up top as Draymond flew by and Klay gave late chase.
Houston’s last play took too long to develop as Green had knocked the inbound back to the backcourt over Smith’s head, and by the time Terry corralled Harden’s miss, it was too late. The buzzer sounded as Terry missed the jumper where he stood, and the Warriors took Game 1, 110-106.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @bendknight)
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
