The Golden State Warriors have won Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals against the Houston Rockets with 119:106. Kevin Durant and James Harden fought an incredible scoring duel – but the beard lacked support.
The Warriors started – as expected – with Andre Iguodala instead of a classic center in the Starting Five, the Rockets relied on their proven lineup from previous games.
The heated opening phase belonged to James Harden, who scored the Rockets’ first 9 points (including 2 threesomes) and on top of that Draymond Green attached a technical. The Dubs’ offensive took longer to find each other before Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry met from outside – but Bart and Eric Gordon countered with stepback longballs (21:12). A Kerr time-out helped the guests back on track, difficult goals were hailing: 30:29 for Houston after the first quarter.
The second round started with dry spells on both sides. But the Warriors came to the board more easily and took the lead there for the first time. Initially, it lasted, as Houston now had major problems with the bear-strong defence of Golden States. A 7-0 run of the Rockets from nowhere made up for the matter, Harden followed up with Dunks and a threesome: 56:56 at half-time.
After the break it took 3 minutes before Trevor Ariza committed his 5th foul. And another bad news for Houston: KD hit one difficult shot after another against various defenders. On the other hand, Harden was just as unstoppable and kept his colors halfway within reach. With 3 minutes left on the clock, it was still double-digit for the first time, after Kevon Looney was on the spot with a putback. Durant improved, but was then prescribed a break by Kerr, from which the Rockets profited. So the number 35 returned quickly and ended a dry spell for his team: 87:80 for the Dubs.
Thompson opened the final section with a hot phase, he already had 5 triples in his account. Consistently finished fastbreaks brought the lead back into double figures. Crunchtime started at 103:93 for the Dubs, but Harden hit a threesome. The answer – one guesses it – followed immediately also from outside by Klay. In the time that followed, the Rockets were no longer able to decisively shorten the gap, because not so much slipped through the cage for a long time. The defending champion played Game 1 confidently and won 119:106.
Durant finished the evening with 37 points (14/27 FG, 3/6 3FG), Thompson was also in a good mood with 28 points (6/15 3FG), Curry supported with 18 points and 8 assists. On the other hand, Harden had an outstanding 41 points (14/24 FG) and 7 assists, but he had too little support. Chris Paul scored 23 points.
Game 2 will take place on Thursday night (3 am live on DAZN) also in Houston.
Houston Rockets – Golden State Warriors 106:119, Series 0:1 (BOXSCORE)
Ariza, Harden, Tucker, Capela, Nene – the Rockets put one defender after another against KD. He played his advantages mercilessly against every opponent and scored from different positions. It didn’t matter if his casts had a high degree of difficulty or fidgeted a hand in front of his face. Its efficiency was impressive. He also did not spare himself defensively when he had to fight Harden.
It was hardly integrated into the offensive (3/8 FG, 1/5 3FG). But that was also because his main task was to provide blocks for Harden, so that Curry as Arizas defender “stuck” to the beard. Defensively, he was as helpless against Durant as the rest. He also had foul problems.
It was hardly surprising that both teams switched a lot. That didn’t change with the Warriors either, when Looney was a supposedly slow Big on the field – he was also sent directly one-on-one with Harden or Paul. And he did surprisingly well, only rarely did the defensive construct of the dubs collapse (mostly when Curry had to defend against Harden, otherwise he was hidden at Ariza). On the other hand, this concept didn’t work out so well for the Rockets, simply because Durant had some advantage against any defender. Indicated double teams only arrived in the fourth quarter – and thus too late.