Three nights after taking a 2-0 lead against the Houston Rockets, the Golden State Warriors were at the Toyota Center for Game 3.
The Warriors were, once again, without Stephen Curry, the first time he has missed back-to-back games since his injury-riddled 2011-12 season. Curry went through shootaround this morning, but a collaborative decision between him, head coach Steve Kerr, and others including general manager Bob Myers resulted in him sitting this one out. Golden State was also without Kevon Looney.
The Rockets were without Sam Dekker (back).
1st Quarter – Sleep-Walking
Harrison Barnes hit the Warriors’ first bucket, a jumper, which was a good sign for Golden State after going a combined 4-for-22 in Games 1 and 2.
Patrick Beverley struck back with a corner three from a sideout after getting fouled by Shaun Livingston, Klay Thompson was short on his triple attempt, but then got a layup on a cut after Donatas Motiejunas missed a banker…
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…followed by a Livingston alley-oop dunk…
.@ShaunLivingston finishes the break on CSNBA & TNT. pic.twitter.com/ejQWh3LHCM
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) April 22, 2016
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…assisted by Draymond Green in transition after Trevor Ariza missed a corner trey.
But James Harden found Dwight Howard on a thunderous two-handed alley-oop…
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…and Kerr called a timeout with 8:32 remaining, the Rockets up with an 8-6 lead.
The turnovers continued as, out of the timeout, Barnes fed a Klay post too lightly, ultimately punished by another Harden-to-Howard alley-oop after a Festus Ezeli turnover, although Barnes did make up for it with another swished jumper. Andrew Bogut also had picked up his second personal foul, which prompted the move to Ezeli.
Ezeli added another turnover after grabbing his own miss, firing a pass over the head of Barnes in the corner, but got a banker over Howard to drop before committing his second personal foul as well, which prompted Kerr to bring in James McAdoo.
To make matters worse, Beverley hit a corner triple and Kerr had to call another timeout, upset by the turnovers and the poor close-out by Barnes.
A Thompson dribble-and-pop swish off a screen from McAdoo got the Warriors as close at 21-15 with 3:52 to play, but Klay made a bad jump pass that got picked, McAdoo raced back to block a runner by Harden, but no one was there for Harden’s own rebound and he connected on a corner three as Leandro Barbosa arrived too late.
Green threw a poor lob, Ariza got a runout dunk out of it, the Warriors’ fifth turnover in nine minutes, to go along with two burnt timeouts already, and luckily, McAdoo drew a charge on Harden after a missed three-pointer by Green.
Out of the timeout, Andre Iguodala shanked a three, but Thompson finally got a Warriors bucket by driving and finishing with the left hand, to cut the Rockets’ lead to 27-17 with 2:10 to go.
Harden crossed Iguodala on the next possession for a long two…
James Harden's talking smack pic.twitter.com/Oevrf0RXWW
— KNBR (@KNBR) April 22, 2016
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…Draymond made another bad pass, which eventually led to yet another horrible jump pass, this time by Barbosa, which led to a fast break layup, missed by Ariza, but putback by Harden for his 13th and 14th points of the quarter, with 39 seconds left.
McAdoo managed to draw contact and hit a free throw in the waning moments, then also swatted Michael Beasley at the rim, and Harden missed from deep, draped by Iguodala, and Thompson missed a dribble-and-pop from thirty feet at the buzzer.
Houston had a 31-18 lead after one.
2nd Quarter –
Marreese Speights started the second stanza and promptly hit a triple, then drew a charge on Beasley, plus another foul on a defensive rebound, with Beasley combing his back, before hitting another three.
But the Warriors had trouble stopping the Rockets and couldn’t chip into Houston’s double-digit lead much. even after a nice “tic-tac-toe” swing pass from Ian Clark, who got stuck after the catch in the middle from Livingston on the wing.
Beverley hit a running banker, Beasley spun around Barnes on the right block, and Ariza hit a contested triple up top.
Even as Livingston made a beautiful turning of the corner on a dunk past both Jason Terry and Howard…
Shaun Livingston putting Dwight Howard on a poster pic.twitter.com/cyonphQuh2
— KNBR (@KNBR) April 22, 2016
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…Terry answered Barnes’ three with his own from the right corner with Klay too late on the close-out.
Speights hit a catch-and-shoot from the right elbow, but Beasley answered back from the left elbow, and Kerr took another timeout with 5:27 remaining with the Rockets still up, 47-35.
After Motiejunas lost an outlet to Thompson…
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…Harden got Iguodala on another crossover-stepback trey and Clark made another nice pass for a long Thompson two-pointer, but then turned the ball over trying to do too much on the bounce in transition.
Out of another timeout, Howard got a left dunk, but after Bogut grabbed him for too long on an offensive rebound attempt, Howard slammed the ball down and was called for a technical foul, which Klay canned, to make it 55-40 with 1:23 to play:
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The Warriors added eight more points to close out the quarter, as Speights made a “Hack-A-Howard” foul with Dwight getting mad again, inexplicably, then with an Iguodala jump hook, a long-armed steal by Livingston leading to a free throw by Speights, and after two missed free throws on a “Hack-A-Josh Smith”…
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…with Green providing the, “Hell no!” yell afterwards, Thompson drove and found Speights for a corner three with 2.4 seconds left:
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The Rockets held a 55-48 lead as Speights came off the bench to score 14 points to lead the Warriors. Klay had 11 points, but was 0-for-3 from downtown. Draymond tallied just 1 point on 0-for-4 shooting, 2 rebounds, and 3 assists.
Harden led Houston with 17 points including 5 rebounds and 5 assists. Howard had 9 points, 7 rebounds, Motiejunas added 7 boards, and the Rockets out-rebounded Golden State, 30-20.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @photobomba)
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