What Steph-less Warriors can take away from ugly win over Rockets originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
As good as the Warriors were in the opening 24 minutes against the Houston Rockets on Saturday night, they were just as bad the next 24 minutes at Toyota Center before pushing on into overtime for a 127-121 win to start a five-game road trip .
The Warriors’ long list of positives in the first half of a third straight game without Steph Curry and De’Anthony Melton could unravel and roll to the floor. They made 24 shots on 20 assists at halftime and had just four turnovers.
They shot the lights out from deep, shooting 60 percent while converting 12 of their 20 three-point attempts. They outscored the Rockets and swarmed them defensively, and their depth shined as Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield each scored 14 points off the bench.
The Warriors had a 28-point lead at halftime and led by as many as 31 points in the first half. Their 71 points were the most in the first half of the entire season, and their second highest in any half.
And then came the second half.
Rockets coach Ime Udoka went small and his high-energy group flipped the script on the Warriors. Without Curry, the Warriors had no one to create offense. Between the second half and overtime, the Warriors made 16 shots on just six assists – four short of their 10 goals. Costly mistakes. Mental errors. Surpassed and surpassed.
Until it mattered most.
“I’m so proud of the guys for the way they responded to Houston’s offense in that second half, especially in the fourth quarter,” coach Steve Kerr told reporters after the Warriors’ win.
Scoreboards don’t have a sexy meter. In a few months, analysts, fans and observers may remember the many mistakes the Warriors made in even allowing the Rockets to come roaring back. Probably not. What they will see, and what the team will remember, is a win that tested the Warriors’ will without their superstar on the road.
All the good vibes to kick off an impressive start to the season could have easily gone south with multiple fingers being pointed. But these victories are necessary.
Ugly victories and the positive aura that comes from surviving them are felt in a locker room. While this is a franchise full of dynastic moments over the past decade, the Warriors aren’t ripe for much overtime success, especially on the road.
The Warriors had lost their previous eleven games in overtime before extending their win streak against the Rockets to fourteen consecutive games, including the last eight in Houston.
“Great experience,” Kerr said. “To win after Draymond [Green] making mistakes, winning without Steph, winning on a night where the game was completely turned around… it’s great to have that game on tape. It’s great to feel that because we’re going to have to get better when we face that kind of defense.”
Turning back the clock, the Warriors’ starting five consisted of Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant, surrounded by Patrick McCaw, Jordan Bell and JaVale McGee when they last won a road game in overtime on December 18, 2017. Omri Casspi scored 14 points from the bank. , and Nick Young added 10. Only a few things have changed since then.
This is the same team that played 48 league games last season. A season in which Curry won Clutch Player of the Year despite the Warriors being 24-24 in said games. They were 1-4 in clutch games that he didn’t play.
There has already been one match this season that falls into the clutch category, meaning the score is within five points in the last five minutes. And that game was the Warriors’ only loss this season, as they lost 112-104 to the Los Angeles Clippers when Curry left early due to a sprained left ankle.
The next two games were the perfect response to beating the diminutive New Orleans Pelicans on back-to-back nights at home. Saturday night in Houston was a tough one from a young, energetic team on the rise. A blow that was so physically and mentally tough would have been too much to handle a season ago, Green believes.
“Last year we would have smoked that game – 1,000 percent,” Green told reporters. “It’s good to see that we can get a game out of it regardless of whether it went south or not.”
With another win in the record books and a third straight without Curry, the needle continues to point north for the Warriors – sexy points be damned.
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