Game 3 Round 2: Houston Rockets (1-2) 126 - 121 Golden State Warriors (2-1)
First published May 5th 2019
Sagging from Draymond wasn't doing the trick so the Houston defense is now fully extended to the perimeter. The Warriors got a couple of makes from three from pindowns, creating a half second long hiccup in a switching scheme which is enough for the players in question. Warriors had a good amount of matchup hunting as well (see Curry driving on Capela and KD shooting over Harden, both coming off the Curry/Durant pick and roll).
The Rockets offense gave the first action to CP3, running Pick and Rolls and trying to generate some openings in semi-transition but should this this first and faster approach be blocked, you go straight to an ISO on whoever Curry is guarding. Overall, i though having Chris do a lot more even with Harden out there was a successful plan, since a lot of the series was so heavily focused on containing a Harden-centric offense in those minutes and this switches up everything about how Houston starts their halfcourt sets. It was jarring at times how Harden was fully taking over when Paul rested and not the other way around.
This is Capela finally learning and adjusting to the lob that was destroying the Rockets over the first two games. He showed also a lot more aggressiveness in offensive rebounding, which they desperately need to win. His play was huge in what ended up being a very close first quarter.
The early second quarter is Paul trying to exploit the Warriors pick and roll coverage (and Jerebko). The first time around, Tucker is baited into the floater but on the next attempt he curls a pass around Jerebko for a Nenê open at the rim. Also, strong quick drives when the Warriors are trying to contain a lob (or equivalent inside the paint pass) allow a better chance to score at the rim, particularly against the less agile bigs or less effective rim protectors.
With great play by Gordon (more on that later) and good defense - helped by how only Klay and Kevin seem to be the only players involved in any sort of offensive action in that second unit but i don't want to take credit away from the D - the Rockets had rightfully a lead hovering double digits. This would be the lead the Rockets carried through most of the game and the most bench-heavy minutes for the Warriors. I'll just say that the bench score only 7 points for the Warriors today.
Eric Gordon in the first half - 20 points - was doing everything. Already showed one of his drives and that's some great defense by him on Klay. The Warriors will many times live with Gordon being the closer of plays as long as they keep Harden touches to a minimum so it's extra devastating if he gets like this. It also allowed the Beard some extra rest.
It's crazy watching these high tempo scrambles. Regardless, Houston was doing great getting back after missed and the Dubs fell into the trap of some early but very tough attempts.
Not much changed following halftime. Durant had the first 8 points for the team but 5 of those from the line and the first big moment of note in the second half was PJ getting his 4th foul within the first couple of minutes. The game was about to be much more reliant on Austin Rivers and Gordon would become the primary defender of Durant, which would be the point he would start to get hot. Even so, Houston was playing excellent defense, being really smart in choosing where and when to help away from Andre or Green.
At this point the Rockets just couldn't miss a shot from deep (they hit 8 of their first 11 in the quarter). Shumpert was 3-3 for god's sake. All while McKinnie was air-balling his try. I don't know what i can add.
For all of I've been writing about Houston, the lead and kept hovering around the same margin, mostly sustained by Durant's production and by the time we're rolling in the final period of regulation he had almost single handedly turned it into a one possession game. PJ Tucker would check back in immediately. It just turned into the Kevin Durantspectacle, all the way up to finally getting the lead.
Their counter was changing to the small ball lineup with PJ Tucker at the 5. I've touched on the subject with Capela but the way Houston controlled the boards was the biggest difference to what i saw in the Oakland games. Capela, Nenê or Tucker - whoever it was at the 5 - was amassing second chances and credit for getting good execution on that for 48 minutes of center play.
I don't know what happened here since Klay tells Curry to switch out but then he doesn't go to Gordon so some miscommunication took place. But I know that as a result of this play Houston would get to the bonus with 7 minutes left in the game! Another miscommunication involving Curry, but this time with Green, leads to an open Rivers three.
I expected the Warriors to go straight to running nothing but plays between Curry and Durant... But as soon as a it started Steph showed why he was giving a run to Aru Honshou as the most unfortunate person this week. And as Curry continued to not make a bucket, Iguodola stopped Houston from capitalizing on the other end.
Draymond Green worked his ass off in the final two minutes of the 4th. Iguodola makes the clutch 3 after PJ Tucker made the sensible decision of coming to help on the Durant drive. An open shot you're willing to give but sometimes it bites you. Harden would tie it up at the line and the Warriors don't chose to take the chance for a 2-1 but settle for an awful shot, even for KD. Klay's amazing defense of Paul takes it to overtime.
I have no idea why the Warriors stopped going to KD during OT. Even more so when they were in the bonus. Curry had 5 fouls and was being hunted down but the big clutch moment of the play comes after Harden gives up on that switch and drills the stepback against the man who has been his best defender. Great job milking those seconds as well.
Curry had a disastrous game, in case it wasn't obvious. Might have been his worst I have seen. He blew multiple layups (including a HUGE one in OT) and you have to take advantage of these mistakes. And you could see him hesitating in the second clip and he had a couple of other shots where it happened and that cannot ever happen. Not like you'd take him out because it's worse without him and people won't stop giving him attentionbut him being the guy with the ball late this game was nonsensical.
PJ Tucker is a fantastic player, killed us in the boards and his fantastic help defense. Harden made the clutch shots he had to make after surrendering the first half to Gordon. All their role players showed up at the moments their names were called and taking away the House and Faried minutes was huge. They knew this was the series on the line and they rose to the moment. The Warriors weren't in a lot of foul trouble and didn't turnover the ball, so this must feel like an even bigger win.
Kevin Durant is the best player in the world.
Other Notes:
James Harden wasn't having the best shooting night from deep as well but his finishing around the rim was on point - finding windows with hesitations and shifts in speed. This would result in the coverage changing to trapping him off screens.
I though Livingston did nothing today but muck up the spacing. Our bench was a misery anyway.
I don't like this. It's too far from the basket to try posting up (because of those extra steps to get to the pass) and Paul is already better than most with bigger guards in such a scenario.
(Reddit)
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