The Golden State Warriors stole the home advantage from the Houston Rockets in the first game of the Conference Finals. The bitter realization for the Rockets: There is no working gameplan against Kevin Durant, which hit unfair throws. The mistakes were made elsewhere.
So this was the first part of the duel the NBA world has been eagerly awaiting for months. The duel of the giants in the Western Conference, first place against second place, the defending champion against his biggest challenger, who is believed to break the dominance of the dubs.
In the Rockets, there was much talk of “obsession” in the course of the season. They were obsessed, General Manager Daryl Morey said in December, to beat the Warriors – that goal was above all. Because if you beat them, that’s the simple logic, you’ll most likely become NBA champion. More is not possible.
Almost the entire squad structure of the current Rockets team was assembled to match the strengths of the Warriors or to take them away. Chris Paul, Luc Mbah a Moute and P.J. Tucker were all defenders with whom the system of permanent switching could be perfected, and the development of Clint Capela played its part.
And the success was by no means lacking: The Texans played a record season, dominated the regular season duels with the champion, finished the round as top seed and were allowed to enter the Conference Finals with a home advantage – where the Warriors are now waiting, the ultimate boss for whom they have prepared so meticulously and obsessively.
About two and a half hours later and with a 106:119 defeat in the luggage, the euphoria in Texas should be somewhat dampened. Because the home advantage is gone again. However, two other findings are much more worrying. One: When the Warriors play in a focused manner, they are still an over-team. Two, no matter how obsessed you make plans: Kevin Durant is a player who cannot be defended with any concept.
Durant scored 37 points on the Rockets, 14/27 from the field and 50 per cent from the triple line. He was on the field for 40 minutes, defending many of them against James Harden – and yet he had so much energy for this offensive performance, in which he only lost one ball.
“No one in the league is likely to be able to defend him properly,” said team-mate Stephen Curry right after the match. This brief analysis hits the nail on the head – what the Rockets had to experience up close.
Trevor Ariza, Paul, James Harden, Tucker, Mbah a Moute, Capela and later even Nene: all these players tried to prove themselves against the 2017 MVP finals. None of them had a chance, although they actually did a good job: Because Durant rarely really came by, instead he had to take difficult fadeaways, pullups, hooks or threesomes. And he hit and hit and hit, no matter how close the defenders were to him and disturbed his graduation.
“Having Kevin is the ultimate luxury,” rejoiced Coach Kerr. “If an attack comes to a halt, just give him the ball and he’ll score against every defender in the world.”
Form Durant’s form is not good news for the competition in the playoffs: last year he had already improved from round to round until he dominated the finals at will and decided for his team.
He stands symbolically for the dubs, which come along with a completely different body language and attitude than just a few weeks ago. You’re on a mission leading KD: “He was the first player at the shootaround again this morning. When the others arrive, he’s already sweaty,” praised Backup Point Guard Shaun Livingston.
For the Rockets, this fact is frustrating. They too know that they did not do much wrong in their work against KD, but were nevertheless dismantled by him. The only alternative is double teams – but the Warriors have had an answer to that all season. An open threesome or a loban game after two-on-one situations are usually the result of this strategy. So no bright prospects.
But there is hope for the Texans anyway. It sounds funny: The Rockets have defended better against Durant than against any other Warrior, and much better,” Mike D’Antoni summed it up, “It’s no problem if he hits such difficult fadeaways or other incredible shots. The problem, explained the head coach, lay somewhere else.
Because with all that focus on Durant, Houston made too many mistakes away from him. 54 Warrior points were uncontested according to ESPN Stats & Information – they came from throws that no defender made difficult. The dubs were allowed to take 8 completely open threesomes, including Klay Thompson’s dagger. On the other hand, the Rockets only came to 35 such “simple” points.
It was noticeable that the Rockets often had problems with the allocation when they had just scored themselves – apparently they were surprised by how quickly the Warriors, especially in their “Hamptons Five” lineup, threw in the ball and set it against them.
If they tackle and fix these construction sites, much would be achieved for game 2. What is likely to happen again in this one, however, is Houston’s offensive plan, which was not particularly surprising: they tried to isolate Curry and attack him in one-on-one. The chef also rarely saw land, especially against Harden he was without a chance.
The shortcoming from the Rockets’ point of view: You don’t win a series against the Warriors by just referring to insulations, because their defense as a whole is far too good for that. One could see that not least because Harden delivered a 41-point gala, but in the end the Rockets clearly lost.
With Draymond Green and Durant the Warriors have two of the best Helpside defenders in the league in the squad, who even in outnumbered situations still complicate throws or deflect passes. And Thompson, too, is not only a force on men, but also off the beaten track: his anticipation in the pass roads is unparalleled. Due to these characteristics it will be a mammoth task to activate the supporting cast around the beard and CP3 (which also has to put a shovel on it).
The bottom line is that the Rockets have to get together a lot to stay in the race – Game 2 is already a must-win game, because with a 0:2 in your luggage you can actually save yourself the trip to Oakland.
The protagonist from Game 1 – Durant himself – sent a warning directly to the rest of the world: “I don’t know if we’ve reached our limit yet. We can play even better.” If that’s true, this epic duel everyone’s been waiting for will be over sooner than many expect – despite all the obsession on the other side.