The Golden State Warriors were at the Toyota Center for Game 4 of the 2015 Western Conference Finals against the Houston Rockets.
Again, Patrick Beverley and Donatas Motiejunas were out for the Rockets while the Warriors were without Marreese Speights due to a calf strain.
1ST QUARTER: Rockets Come Out Focused
The Warriors said they would come out with the same mentality as they had in Game 3, but the Rockets were way more focused while Golden State reverted to long jumpers and turnovers.
Klay Thompson was hoping to break out of his mini-slump, but it continued as he missed his first two shots, an opening possession missed three from the left elbow off a curl, then a catch-and-shoot from the right elbow that was short. Harrison Barnes missed a wide open three from the right side and Stephen Curry missed a trey attempt early in the shotclock from the left wing.
Silly turnovers came back to haunt the Dubs, as Draymond Green tried a cross-court pass from the right arc to Curry in the left corner that sailed over the Warriors’ bench. After that, Andrew Bogut threw a bad cross-court pass to Curry.
Meanwhile, the Rockets’ Josh Smith started with a three-point swish up top, a feed to Dwight Howard for a lefty layup, an assist to a backdoor-cutting Trevor Ariza for a two-hand dunk, and a cut down the left side for a banker.
With 9:30 remaining in the first frame, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr took a timeout as Houston took a 12-0 lead.
But the Rockets kept raining threes, as Smith hit another two from beyond the arc on early shots, plus Jason Terry as Steph got screened up top. Barnes had broken the drought with a trey up top to make it 12-3, but the Warriors found themselves down 25-13 approaching five minutes left, even as Curry answered with two triples of his own.
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Thompson didn’t seem ready as, twice, he was left watching the ball on defense and not positioning himself for help.
After Smith got another bucket, a floater one-handed over Green, Houston went up 34-16 as Green tried and up-and-under against James Harden that got swatted, then Harden got a step-back trey over Draymond on the next sequence.
Leandro Barbosa, who had subbed in for Klay, got two quick buckets by driving past Pablo Prigioni, but Prigioni fought back as he got a screen on Curry and pulled up for a three that rattled in. That gave the Rockets 7 treys to open the game and they were up 37-20 with 2:29 to go.
Steph missed a three, his 7th attempt from downtown on 3 makes, but Smith got stopped on the break by good defense by Curry, then Corey Brewer got stopped by Andre Iguodala, who ended the play with a big step on the break and a nice lay-in, getting fouled in the process, but he missed the free throw and Houston held a 37-22 lead with 1:53 remaining.
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The Warriors ended the quarter on a whimper as Iguodala missed a trey and fell down, leading to Harden pulling an early swish from up top for the Rockets’ 8th trey.
Then Barnes missed another shot on the right side, and Brewer drew fouls on Steph on the ensuing attack. That got followed up with Barbosa missing an open three, created by Iguodala, that went way short, and Harden crossed Barbosa bad at the top of circle and pulled up for a swish.
The Rockets took a 45-22 lead into the second quarter, shooting 77% from the field and going 8-for-9 from beyond the arc.
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2ND QUARTER: Steph Goes Down
Golden State made up a little ground as Green came alive, tipping in an Iguodala missed free throw, then getting a bucket down in the left block and yelling, “And one!”
But the Warriors committing two more turnovers as Iguodala was too close to Shaun Livingston in the interior and Bogut threw a bounce pass to a cutting Thompson at Klay’s feet.
Still, Iguodala stole a Prigioni bad cross-court dish and Draymond scored another bucket on the break, assisted by Livingston, who also picked up a technical as Green yelled, “And one!” again and, with the ref not blowing the whistle, Shaun motioned to official Joey Crawford that Draymond got hit on the head.
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Green then did well on the defensive post, drawing an offensive 3-second call on Howard, but Thompson missed another jumper in traffic, Smith answered with a long two, and Livingston’s hand-off to Klay went awry, resulting in a Terry layup on the other end. Houston went back up by 23, 52-29, with 8:11 left.
Draymond came back with an early swish triple, but Howard boarded a Brewer miss and Bogut fouled him for his 3rd personal. With Festus Ezeli subbed in for Bogut, Howard went to work again and faked him for two more free throws. Klay sent a jump pass over the Warriors’ bench again, but Thompson finally made a shot shortly thereafter, a little dribble-and-pop.
Green blocked a Terry layup and Ezeli fed a cutting Klay for two, but Curry was slow on the way back on defense, Ariza got a backdoor, and Steph jumped early to contest the layup and fell to the court after not having anywhere to land as Ariza drew the foul and missed the awkward reverse layup as Curry bounded off Ariza’s back and crumpled into the hardwood.
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Curry landed on his left wrist, then his head jilted back to hit the hardwood as his right arm was pinned on the landing, or lack thereof. He took several minutes to get to a seated position and finally walked slowly to the locker room with two trainers, one of them holding his left wrist up as they went to get everything checked out.
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Kerr told his team that it was an opportunity to step up and make a few defensive plays with a “weird vibe” in the building and the team responded. Ezeli missed inside but two-hand slammed off his own rebound, Livingston made a layup, and Klay pulled up on the bounce from the deep right wing, then got a step-back three from the right corner from Livingston to trim the Houston lead to 59-46 with 4:07 to go, an 8-0 run. Rockets head coach Kevin McHale called a timeout.
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The Warriors kept their foot on the gas pedal as Livingston cut and got a two-hand dunk fed by Ezeli, Barbosa hit a trey from the right elbow, but Livingston went too hard on the fastbreak layup in traffic and, running back, fouled Ariza shooting a triple from the right corner for an and-one. Ariza also flopped a bit after the shot.
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Kerr went Hack-A-Howard and it worked, as Howard missed two throws and McHale took him out. That allowed Barnes to return for the small ball.
Klay got hot and hit two treys, then couldn’t get the ball on the wing, so Livingston drove, lost the ball, got it to Draymond, and Green went down the lane for a lefty layup, and the Warriors got as close as 59-66 with 33 seconds remaining.
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However, Terry made a three from the left corner at the shotclock buzzer and the Rockets took a 69-59 lead into halftime.
Barnes got the last shot of the half blocked by Harden.
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Harden got the rebound and heaved a three-quarter-court shot that netted, but it was definitely after the horn.
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