The Golden State Warriors lit up for 41 points in the third quarter of Game 4 right after Stephen Curry was declared out for the game from taking a fall and suffering a knee sprain.
Golden State played Games 2 and 3 without Curry due to an ankle injury, winning Game 2 and losing Game 3 in Houston.
Game 5 wasn’t an issue for the Warriors, as they dismantled the Houston Rockets with a 114-85 win to advance to the conference semifinals.
The Warriors got off to an 8-0 start on two straight threes. That turned into a 23-14 start as the Rockets struggled mightily to produce outside of James Harden, who scored 12 of the team’s first 14 points. Harden was the only Rocket to make a field goal in the first quarter, which the Warriors won 37-20 on 14-of-22 shooting with 12 assists.
The Rockets went scoreless for the last 5:18 of the first quarter. James Harden scored 25 of his 30 points in the first half, but his teammates shot a combined 3-for-24 from the field while the Warriors shot 55 percent.
Houston started the second half with their only brief sign of life on a 5-0 run but the Warriors responded with an 8-0 run of their own, which compiled. They ended the third quarter with a 30-point lead after Klay Thompson’s 14-point third quarter eruption created even more separation between the two teams, effectively putting the game out of reach for the Rockets for the rest of the game.
We’ll next see the Warriors continue their title defense against either the Los Angeles Clippers or the Portland Trail Blazers in the Western Conference semifinals.
