The Golden State Warriors look to finish off the Houston Rockets and sweep the series. It won’t be as easy as it sounds. The Rockets will have to find away to stop the Warriors high powered offense and find away to score around their stifling defense. Draymond Green hopes the fans leave early and the Warriors get a chance claim some extra rest. One win away from the Finals, it’s so close, they can taste it.
Here’s our instant recap:
1st Quarter
The Warriors could not buy a basket and the Rockets got off to an early. Josh Smith had five quick points and the Warriors were 0 for 4 and already had 4 turnovers. The Rockets led 9-0. Another Smith triple gave the Rockets a 12 point lead. Finally, Harrison Barnes hit a triple to end the drought, but Trevor Ariza came back with a triple of his own. Buckets from Jason Terry and Dwight Howard put them up 19-3. The Warriors were being outplayed and the Rockets could not miss. Steph Curry joined the party late and scored five points to keep the Rockets from running away with it. Smith was just on another level to start the game and had 13 early points, including a couple of triples. You expected the Rockets to cool off, but they didn’t. Everybody was hitting threes and at one point even Kevin McHale hit a triple. The Rockets had 37 points and a 15 point lead with less than two minutes left in the quarter. The Rockets ended the quarter with 45 points and had a 45-22 lead.
Steph keeping the Dubs alive. https://t.co/AJt4FhTWGw @warriorsworld
— Alex Torres (@alextorresww) May 26, 2015
2nd Quarter
Howard started the second with a bucket and the Warriors responded with 7-0 run. The Rockets came right back and it was everybody, not just one player. Another Howard bucket made it a 25 point lead. Houston had all the momentum and they couldn’t miss. With about six minutes left in the quarter, Curry went up to contest an Ariza layup and fell hard. He was hurt and it looked bad. He was barely able to walk off the court. After Steph Curry got hurt, the Warriors still had to play this game. The Dubs were down 19 when Steph left the game and Klay Thompson picked up the slack and hit two triples to cut the lead to 13. A dunk from Livingston and a triple from Barbosa got the lead up to 10. Everyone was worried about Steph, but the Warriors did a great job of just sticking to their game plan. Unfortunately, Ariza hit a triple and was fouled by Livingston to give them a 14 point lead again. Klay hit another triple to get the deficit down to a manageable 12. Thompson would hit another three to make it a nine point game and Green followed with a drive to the basket to make it a seven point deficit. The Warriors let Jason Terry get up a uncontested corner three and that made it 10 again.
Klay Splash again. https://t.co/D22hNrMgMj @warriorsworld
— Alex Torres (@alextorresww) May 26, 2015
3rd Quarter
Harrison Barnes started the second half with a dunk, but the Rockets came right back and scored four quick points. With about nine minutes left, Draymond Green got a bucket and the foul to cut the lead to nine. Ariza hit a triple to put them up by 12 again, but Green responded with one of his own. Harden then proceeded to scored six straight points to put the Rockets up by 15, but the great news is that Steph Curry came back into the game. After scaring everybody in Dub Nation, it was good to see him on the floor. Unfortunately, Harden took his game to another level and put the Rockets up by 19. Curry didn’t look like himself and that’s expected. He shot an air ball and was blocked by Terrence Jones. The Warriors went cold and it was a 15-2 run for the Rockets to give them a 20 point lead. The Warriors finished the quarter strong and were able to cut the lead to 15.
He’s Baaaaaaacccccccckkkkkkkk!
— Alex Torres (@alextorresww) May 26, 2015
4th Quarter
Leandro Barbosa started the game with layup to cut the lead to 13. Triples from Barnes and Thompson got the deficit down to 10. The Rockets were simply not on fire like they had been. Klay on the other hand was and another three from him got it down to seven. Curry finally hit a three to cut the deficit to six, the lowest it had been in quite some time. However, Harden once again took over and went on a 7-0 run on his own. The Warriors went cold and it was a 16 point lead once again. Curry would hit a few more triples to to get the lead down to 10, but time was running out. The Warriors got as close as eight, but Harden was simply too much to handle.
Curry’s first bucket since being back. https://t.co/wsO7JiCZA4 @warriorsworld
— Alex Torres (@alextorresww) May 26, 2015