Was this — a blowout in a potential closeout game — an aberration, or did the Houston Rockets just unlock a formula to steal this series from the Golden State Warriors?
Wednesday night was just one game, so it’s difficult to put too much stock into this being an NBA playoffs series-defining momentum shift that spells trouble for the experienced and well-coached Warriors. But Houston’s 131-116 demolition showed that the Rockets’ best bet is unleashing their speed and athleticism to destabilize Golden State’s offense.
Still, the Warriors need just one win to dispatch the No. 2 seed.
But from tipoff, this game felt different.
The Rockets pressed Golden State on defense, using their length and speed to force the Warriors into long possessions and making Golden State work deep into the shot clock. The Rockets often forced turnovers, swiping seven steals before halftime. Houston also dropped into a zone, further slowing and frustrating Golden State’s operation.
Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler, the two prominent Warriors players, missed their first seven combined shots, and forward Amen Thompson lulled Curry into a pair of uncharacteristic early giveaways.
The saving grace for Golden State was its bench, which scored 21 of the team’s first 29 points. But, by the time Golden State had scored its 29th point, the Rockets were already up by 25.
The Warriors clearly cannot compete against elite teams in the West if both Curry and Butler are off.
Houston’s defensive assault and subsequent up-tempo pace injected confidence and flow into the young offense. At the half, the Rockets were shooting a ridiculous 69.4% from the field — including 9-of-15 (60%) from 3. Houston also hammered the paint, with a 28-12 advantage there. Those seven Rockets steals before halftime also sparked a 10-2 lead on fastbreak points headed into the locker room.
And, as Golden State tried to contain Houston’s speed, the Warriors found themselves out of position; the Rockets made 20 trips to the free throw stripe by the end of the second quarter, converting 17.
It was telling that Warriors coach Steve Kerr subbed out his veteran Big 3 of Curry, Butler and Draymond Green with 5:50 left to play … in the third quarter. It was a concession that showed Kerr understood this was a lost game.
The Warriors did eventually close the gap to 14 on a 25-7 run, but that was sparked by Golden State’s third-string players after Kerr had emptied the bench.
Kerr, however, is a four-time NBA champion as a head coach, and one of the premier minds in basketball. He and the Warriors will almost certainly scheme up tweaks to try to neutralize Houston’s pace ahead of Friday’s Game 6 matchup in San Francisco.
The Rockets are trying to become just the 14th team in NBA history to overcome a 3-1 series deficit to advance in the playoffs, a deficit that has claimed a whopping 95.5% of teams that have encountered it.
Wednesday night showed if Houston is to push this series to the brink, it must keep leaning into its speed and athleticism — things that the Warriors cannot match on the floor, no matter what Kerr draws up on the clipboard.