NBA: Compensation by blowout! Rockets collective defies soloist Durant

The Houston Rockets are back in business! In game 2, the best team of the Regular Season clearly beats the Golden State Warriors with 127:105 (BOXSCORE) – the Western Conference Finals are balanced again.

The atmosphere in the Toyota Center was unusually loud – the fans of the Rockets realized of course how important this game was for their team. Both teams started with the same lineups as in the first game, but at the beginning they were somewhat overmotivated and therefore inaccurate. The Warriors alone made three turnovers in the first two minutes, but things didn’t really go differently on the other side.

Meanwhile, James Harden and Kevin Durant continued in the same way as in game 1 and again marked the offense of their respective teams with 9 and 8 early points respectively. Harden was then the first to get explosive support in the person of Eric Gordon, but the Warriors performed quite nervously and at times remained four minutes without a score. So the first quarter ended with 26:21 for the hosts.

They built on that at the beginning of the second – first P.J. Tucker scored from outside, then Harden did the same and suddenly Steve Kerr had to take a break at 12 points behind. As a result, Golden State caught up briefly, but two more Tucker threesomes brought Kerr back to the boil just three minutes later. The Rockets now celebrated offensive basketball, the Dubs didn’t want to succeed at times. The lead swelled to 18 points before KD netted from downtown again. 64:50 on break.

The third quarter then started as a big Durant show – almost single-handedly KD led the Warriors’ comeback attempt. The Rockets fended off the onslaught in the collective – Tucker remained strong, CP3 also scored some points, while only Durant scored constantly in the dubs. In the end, the Warriors even lost “their” third quarter with 2 points – it went into the last quarter with 95:79 for Houston.

There, Curry finally woke up a little, CP3 also took his fifth foul after almost five minutes and had to take a seat on the bench. Now, however, an 8-0 run by three from Gordon and Tucker and a layup from Harden followed, Houston led again with 19, then Harden even added another three. The game was decided – about five minutes before the end Kerr already took his starters from the court.

Durant finished the game with 38 points (13/22 FG) as topscorer, but otherwise only Curry (16, 1/8 3FG, plus 7 assists and 7 rebounds) scored two digits from the warriors before garbage time. The Rockets, on the other hand, had five players and Gordon and Harden were the best scorers with 27 points each. The Beard also got 10 rebounds.

Game 3 of the series takes place on Monday night in Oakland (Mon, 2am at LIVESTREAM on SPOX).

Houston Rockets – Golden State Warriors 127:105, Series 1:1 (BOXSCORE)

It was basically a sensational presentation of the Rockets’ supporting cast, but Tucker was particularly noticeable because he defended outstandingly, accepted battles, covered everything from Thompson to Green – and then also showed an absolutely flawless offensive performance. 22 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 5/6 threesome, playoff career high. What more could you ask for?

After his great performance in game 1, the Shooting Guard was invisible in this game, only 8 points (3/11 FG) were his lowest in these playoffs. Not as defensive as in game 1, but apart from Durant and sometimes Draymond Green, many warriors could have been named here.

Much more than in the first game, the Rockets focused on attacking Curry in the defense. Previously this had only been done by Harden, but now Paul, Gordon and other players started dribbling or even going to the post against him. And they also changed defensively – in game 1 CP3 had started against Thompson, this time he worked on Curry with his physique from the beginning. This obviously frustrated and tired the double MVP – because the litter did not want to fall, Curry came to basket successes only with his penetration and was defensively a weak spot.