ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — The depleted Houston Rockets (2-2 preseason) visited the Golden State Warriors (1-2 preseason) for the Warriors’ 4th preseason game.
The Rockets were without James Harden, Dwight Howard, Trevor Ariza, and Jason Terry, who did not make the trip to Oakland after their overtime victory in Phoenix two nights ago, due to various injuries. Also out were Marcus Thornton and Clint Capela due to injury.
The Warriors were without the services of Harrison Barnes (right knee sprain), although interim head coach Luke Walton said in the pregame presser that Barnes would have played had this been a regular season game.
Instead of starting Andre Iguodala, Walton opted to keep the second-string chemistry intact and chose Brandon Rush for the start.
1st Quarter
Rush’s first six minutes offered more production for him than perhaps the entire 2014-15 season, although it got off to an auspicious start.
After Andrew Bogut disrupted a Terrence Jones banker, the Warriors found Rush open in the left corner, but he hit the side of the backboard.
Rush got atonement shortly thereafter as Stephen Curry scissored through a high pick by Bogut, then dished to Rush, this time in the right corner. Rush delivered with a three-pointer:
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Bogut then caused a steal and Curry found Rush again in the right corner, but Rush missed, then made up for it again on the baseline out-of-bounds play, getting the feed and the harm for an “and-one” reverse bucket.
Other highlights:
- Draymond Green had a typical hustle-filled quarter, rebounding a KJ McDaniels runner and lofting a touchdown pass to Curry, who avoided the streaking McDaniels for a reverse banker.
- Green got a steal by diving through the legs of Jones, who had momentarily lost his dribble.
- Klay Thompson had a nice alley-oop as he drove into the paint, to Bogut who flushed it with his right hand.
- Leandro Barbosa was instant-offense off the bench again, as he passed up an open three from the right corner, delivered by Iguodala, then drove into the paint and faded away for a swish. Right after that, he stole the ball from Rockets backup guard Will Cummings and went the length of the floor for a layup. Houston head coach Kevin McHale called timeout after that with the Warriors up 32-19 and 2:30 to play.
James McAdoo ended the Warriors outburst with a driving layup and Golden State took a 34-25 lead into the 2nd quarter, although Sam Dekker got a putback layup to end the first frame.
2nd Quarter
Marreese Speights got the start in the 2nd quarter and, like Barbosa, paid dividends almost immediately as he hit a jumper, with the assist to Thompson.
Klay got in on the action again with an alley-oop that McAdoo laid in after Shaun Livingston poked the ball away from Jones.
After an nice and-one floater assisted by Speights, Curry came back in and fed Speights on a catch-and-shoot.
The Warriors were hot, shooting as high as 70% (21-for-30) with under 4 minutes to go in the half.
Green and Rush came back in and it was the starters plus Speights for a bit.
Rush was getting it done on both ends, as he got a theft of Rockets’ big man Joshua Smith. Smith immediately fouled him and Rush got freebies from the line as Houston was in the penalty.
That helped him get ready for the next couple sequences as Curry drilled a three from the right wing to stretch the Warriors’ lead to 20, then Green made a great pass to Klay while looking at Curry setting up for a three-pointer.
Thompson then swung the ball to Rush in the left corner for another splash. That put the Warriors up, 60-37.
Golden State wasn’t done:
- Bogut got an alley-oop slam assisted by Curry,
- Curry went lefty behind-the-back up top on Brewer, up-faked a three, then went down the paint for a lefty finger roll,
- Green got a dunk down the right side fed by Curry, and
- Curry went down the left side of the lane with a scoop that trickled in at the last moment with the nice touch, and
- on a missed dunk attempt by McDaniels, Curry streaked down the court and found Klay for a right-wing swish triple with 0.1 on the game clock.
The only downside was that with 50 seconds remaining, Bogut got hit on the nose and went back to the locker room on an attack of the rim by the pogo-sticking McDaniels:
#Warriors’ Andrew Bogut breaks nose vs. Rockets. #BanThePreseason: http://t.co/uje2UZqYaK pic.twitter.com/0fJiOZ9OSa
— Dieter Kurtenbach (@dkurtenbach) October 16, 2015
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The Warriors took a commanding 82-53 lead into halftime as Curry amassed 18 points on 6-for-7 field, with 6 assists, and Rush added 12. Klay had a quiet (except for the buzzer-beater) 16 points. Green led the rebounding with 7 boards.
The Dubs shot 71.8% from the field (28-for-39).
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @johnzhang22)
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