Three nights after wasting a great effort from the bench and losing to a James Harden game-winner, the Golden State Warriors (2-1) were back at Toyota Center to face the Houston Rockets for Game 4 of the opening round of the 2016 NBA Playoffs.
The Warriors welcomed back Stephen Curry from a sprained right ankle. Kevon Looney recently had surgery on his left hip to repair a torn labrum and was out.
The Rockets were without Sam Dekker (back).
1st Quarter – Shaky Start For Steph
Curry’s first shot was on the first possession of the game and it was a brick, but Klay Thompson came back on the next Warriors sequence to score a triple on a catch-and-shoot from the left wing.
But the Rockets answered with a Donatas Motiejunas-to-Dwight Howard dunk as Golden State had trouble rotating, and Curry missed a couple more threes, but managed to steal an outlet off his own miss from Patrick Beverley.
Steph took Beverley to the hole and drew the “and-one”:
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Draymond Green then got a late-shotclock trey from the right arc after Harrison Barnes initiated the possession with a laser pass to Andrew Bogut, who passed the ball back out and it got swung back around to Green to Curry then back to Draymond.
After Motiejunas missed a three, Thompson drove to the rim, upfaked Howard, Howard didn’t bite, and Klay found Harrison who quickly got it back to Klay as he set up for a right corner triple.
Rockets head coach J.B. Bickerstaff immediately called timeout with the Warriors hitting two straight threes and scoring nine points in the past three possessions. Golden State held a 14-9 lead with 7:07 remaining.
Out of the timeout, Thompson added another catch-and-shoot from distance, assisted by Green and the off-ball screen supplied by Bogut, and after a Motiejunas miss, Curry found Draymond for a dunk in transition with a nice fake pass then pass.
Motiejunas (assisted by James Harden) and Bogut (assisted by Klay) traded dunks…
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…but Green sent a lob too high for Bogut after a nice dupe of two defenders in the right block, and Jason Terry got the runout layup, this after getting a nice drive to drop.
But Bogut came back with a lefty tip-in banker of a missed Andre Iguodala three from the left corner.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr brought in Ian Clark for Curry to close out the last two minutes, and he and James McAdoo did well to dive for a loose ball, but Michael Beasley hit two jumpers inside the paint, then added a three from the corner on a catch-and-shoot, and after McAdoo missed two free throws on a “Hack-A-Mac” with 38.5 seconds to play, the Warriors’ lead dwindled to 27-26 with 25 seconds to go.
With 3.4 seconds remaining, Iguodala found Clark for a bunny shot on the right side of the rim, but Harden came back with a deep triple at the buzzer with Clark draped over him, perhaps even fouling him, although there was no call:
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That tied the game at 29-29 heading into the second stanza.
2nd Quarter – Turnovers And A Fall
Beasley continued his good play with two free throws and a jumper to start the second period, but despite another alley-oop to Howard, the Warriors countered with two jumpers from Iguodala and this three-pointer from Marreese Speights:
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But Curry made a bad low pass to Speights and Beverley stole it easily, missed the runout layup that Corey Brewer dunked home on a putback on the break.
That gave the Rockets a 39-36 lead with 9:52 remaining and Kerr took another timeout.
Howard got another alley-oop from Harden, then another one on an offensive tip from Beasley, but Bogut came back with a dunk as well, on a line drive assist from Steph.
Curry finally hit his first three as Howard got switched, Steph gave up the ball to Draymond, who smartly gave it right back for the deep catch-and-shoot.
But a Harden charge into Bogut was changed to a blocking foul…
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…then a “Hack-A-Dwight” didn’t quite work as Howard made the first and Curry and Beverley were called for a double lane violation on the second, which led to a jump ball that Howard won over Bogut.
Bogut then added to the series of miscues by fouling Trevor Ariza on a deep triple after a pick by Howard created a switch with Green.
Steph added kerosene to the fire as he got trapped beyond the right arc, jumped, and passed the ball directly to Harden at the top, who dunked home the runout, and Kerr had no choice but to burn another timeoutas the Rockets extended their lead to 50-43 with 5:54 to play.
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Festus Ezeli came in after Bogut had picked up his third foul on the hack of Ariza, hit one of two as the Rockets went with “Hack-An-Ezeli”, then a series of empty possessions ensued which included another bad pass from Curry, a charge by Ariza into Steph on the ensuing break, and Green getting called for an offensive foul as Beverley flopped. Green was fortunate not to draw a technical as Shaun Livingston heard his expletives and stepped in the way:
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Draymond then missed a layup that was disrupted by Howard, but Green raced back to steal a pass to the corner by Harden, and finally Ezeli ended the mutual drought with a jump hook, assisted by Thompson, to bring the Warriors to within 50-46 with 3:37 to play.
Kerr employed “Hack-A-Dwight” and was successful, while Barnes finally hit a three from the right side, Iguodala added another triple, and Golden State manufactured a 52-51 lead with Bickerstaff eventually taking out Howard as Iguodala missed two free throws with 2:18 to go.
Iguodala then stole a turn-and-pass from Beasley, led the break, and found Barnes on the trail for a two-handed jam, but it was enough to give the Warriors a boost, as Iguodala fouled Harden from behind on a drive with 49.1 seconds left.
Curry committed his fourth turnover on a baseline inbound pass, but Motiejunas threw it right back to Klay, and Iguodala made a tremendous move on the left step and dunked with the left hand, hitting the floor hard — but he got up:
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Things didn’t go as smoothly for Steph, however, as he retreated to defend Ariza’s buzzer-beater, slipping on a wet spot with his left foot and getting his right knee bent awkwardly to compensate. Ariza missed, Curry got up as quickly as he could and jogged to the locker room, not wanting to make a scene lying on the floor:
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The game went into halftime tied, 56-56, with no immediate status on Steph’s new injury.
Meanwhile, Beverley also went into the locker room before that with an injury, status listed as “questionable”.
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