ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — The Golden State Warriors were back home after a brief two-game road trip to the Midwest, where they beat the Bulls and the Timberwolves, to face the Houston Rockets tonight.
Golden State will depart on Friday for Dallas, New Orleans, and Memphis before heading back on December 18th to play OKC back at #Roaracle/#WarriorsGround.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr announced prior to the game that both David Lee and Andrew Bogut would sit this one out, and Festus Ezeli would get the start in place of Bogut. For the Rockets, Dwight Howard remained out, but James Harden was cleared to play.
1ST QUARTER: Hardly Stopping Harden
Early on, Ezeli got into the action with a couple of plays near the rim, getting fouled after Draymond Green started with a three-pointer from the right elbow, and also getting a dunk assisted by Harrison Barnes after Donatas Motiejunas left Ezeli to double Klay Thompson.
But Ezeli also had another instance where he wasn’t looking when a pass flew by him, the second straight game in which that has happened. That mistake led to a Tarik Black dunk.
Everytime the Warriors tried to get some momentum, the Rockets had an answer. Largely, it was Harden finding or even creating a seam for a strong layup, or dishing off to Trevor Ariza for a three, but at times it was Patrick Beverley taking it hard dribble on Curry for a pull-up.
The Warriors were getting open threes but missing them, only 1-for-7 including one in which Thompson got his shot deflected by a lunging Harden who then finished the next sequence at the rim against Ezeli, as the Rockets took an early 18-12 lead with 6:23 to go in the first frame.
But when Barnes got a strong offensive rebound and made several fakes at the rim and flushed it with a dunk, Harden came back with a layup. When Curry assisted to Green for a dunk, Beverley answered it with a jumper. A Green mishandle of a hand-off to Thompson gave Harden a dunk on the other end.
Curry tried to get some rhythm answering that with a one-legged step-back from the left baseline, but after that, he committed his second personal foul reaching in. He motioned towards Kerr to leave him in, but Kerr took him out and brought Leandro Barbosa in. It was Rockets 24, Warriors 18, with 3:10 to go.
Houston was shooting 10-for-15 from the field at that timeout, with Golden State just 6-for-15. Ezeli led the Dubs with 7 points and Harden the Rockets with 6, to go along with 3 assists.
Iguodala was aggressive, posting up early after he subbed and attacking, but only had one free throw made to show for it.
The Rockets closed out strong with Harden using his body to shield Shaun Livingston to start a drive to the hole after Marreese Speights managed a reverse layup. Beverley followed up Harden with an uncontested runner in the paint and things would’ve been worse than the 30-23 end-of-first deficit had Harden gotten the foul call at the rim on Speights. Speights had tried to take a charge, but there was no call.
Harden led all scorers with 10 points on 5-for-8 from the field as both teams headed into the second quarter. Curry only had 2 points and Thompson was 0-for-3, all from downtown.
2ND QUARTER: Iron Unkind (Til Steph Finally Got Going)
The only early highlights for the Warriors were a crossover and layup by Barbosa, albeit one-on-one play, and a Speights inside and-one, as Motiejunas and Jason Terry combined to stretch the Rockets lead to 36-28 with 9:18 to play.
But Thompson came back in and got a quick jumper, followed by a nice crossover-stepping fastbreak layup in traffic by Livingston, lefty finger roll with the long arms. Iguodala even got a steal on Harden, but Curry couldn’t finish the break as the Rockets got back to protect the rim.
After a long drought in which both teams failed to score for a good four minutes, play marred by turnovers and even consecutive airballs by Curry and Thompson…
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…the Rockets had eight unanswered points all by Harden himself and the Warriors found themselves down 44-37 with 1:50 to go in the half.
But then Curry got a switch from the high action and found himself guarded by Black. Inexplicably, he passed the ball to try and get Green posted up on Beverley. However, Curry eventually got the ball back in the corner for the three that should’ve happened well before that.
Curry then found himself dribbling into trouble, crossing over into the paint, losing the ball, picking it back up, and getting an and-one banker to go in the midst of many Rocket bodies in the paint. That gave the Warriors a deficit of just 43-44 with just 51 ticks to go.
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Curry then forced Beverley into an airball after showing help for Iguodala on Harden, who was displaying a series of crossovers before sensing Curry was off-balance and lasering the ball to Beverley. Curry took full advantage of the next possession as high action once again forced Black to switch on Curry.
This time, Curry wasted no time in sizing up Black and draining a triple from up top. That made it 46-44 with 5.8 to go.
Harden charged hard into Green, who thought he had drew the offensive foul, but the ref awarded Harden two free throws, which he nailed. Green then threw the inbounds out of bounds in an attempt to get Curry the last shot. Luckily for Golden State, Ariza missed a trey at the buzzer as Barnes gave chase.
The Warriors and Rockets headed into halftime tied, 46-46. Harden led all scorers with 20 points on 8-for-14 floor. Curry had 11 on 4-for-9. Speights and Ezeli chipped in 7 points and 5 rebounds apiece.
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