Without the services of Stephen Curry (ankle), the Golden State Warriors still took care of business against the Houston Rockets, winning 115-106 to take a 2-0 series lead. Klay Thompson led Golden State with 34 points, which included shooting 15-for-16 from the free throw line. He was one of four Warriors to score in double digits. James Harden had a team-high 28 points along with 11 assists for the Rockets.
In the opening quarter the Warriors shot 54 percent from the field but the Rockets shot 57 from three, including three makes from Josh Smith, in the opening quarter. Early on and in spurts during the game it looked like the playing field was a little more even without Curry out there for Golden State.
The Warriors were attacking James Harden early.
The sum of the Golden State’s parts collectively chipped in without Curry. Andre Iguodala scored 12 points in his first 10 minutes of action, making four out of five of this three-point attempts to give Golden State early momentum. Shaun Livingston added 16 points and 6 assists as Curry’s replacement in the starting lineup. Marresse Speights chipped in nine points in 10 minutes. Klay Thompson paced the Warriors offensively with 20 of his points coming in the first half.
James Harden picked up his third foul midway through the second quarter but stayed in the game, while Dwight Howard (12 points, 10 rebounds on 5-7 FG in 35 minutes) scored his first two points at the top of the second quarter. 12 of Harden’s 16 points in the first half came at the free throw line.
Houston hung tight each quarter but were unable to put together a run late. They won the third quarter 21-20 but were still -7 going into the fourth, where they cut the Warriors lead down to three with 9:51 left.
The Warriors were still going at Harden late in the game.
The Rockets went three minutes without making a field goal after cutting Golden State’s lead down to three, and head coach Bernie Bickerstaff’s technical foul led to Klay Thompson’s free throws at the 7:16 mark which the Warriors up by double digits for nearly the rest of the game.
Game 3 of Warriors-Rockets will be on Thursday in Houston at 9:30 PM EST on TNT.
