The Houston Rockets beat the Golden State Warriors 98:94 in game 5 (BOXSCORE) and only need one victory to enter the finals. Chris Paul thaws after a weak first half, but injures himself in the last minutes.
In the Warriors, Andre Iguodala and Klay Thompson (both knees) were question marks, at least the Shooting Guard reported for duty, while Iggy was again represented by Kevon Looney in the Starting Five. The centre was immediately attacked by the Rockets and Houston’s first eight points were all scored close to the ring. The Warriors were nervous and lucky that the hosts could not use their open threesomes and could not stand apart.
Golden State couldn’t find a rhythm, Stephen Curry stayed almost eight minutes without a throw, whereas Kevin Durant already had 7 and 6 points. Now, however, the threesome of the Rockets fell through some wild things of Gerald Green and Houston led double-digit for the first time. But since KD got hot again (11 points in the quarter) the Rockets led after a quarter only with 23:17.
The intensity increased further. James Harden gave Draymond Green the next poster while the Warriors-forward on the other side was cleared by Capela during his dunk attempt. However, both teams left a lot behind and scored under 40 percent. The backcourt of the Rockets around Harden and Paul hit nothing at all, but Eric Gordon and P.J. Tucker jumped into the breach. The Dubs now had a little more movement in their offense and brought Curry and Thompson into better positions. So the guests fought their way back up, marched diligently to the free-throw line and equalized the game during the break (45:45), as Houston remained without points in the last 3:17 minutes.
With the Rockets, Paul took over, who had finally found his rhythm and could sink three threesomes in the first minutes. On the other hand, Thompson also thawed with 10 points in the section. It kept going back and forth, even though Harden still couldn’t hit a throw from a distance. Durant scored the last 6 Warriors points in the quarter and thus provided for the 72:71 for the champion.
In the final section, the first minutes belonged to Paul again, who hit one heavy throw after the other and continued to find his teammates. But the hosts were not able to distance themselves, although Harden was now more aggressively looking for the train to the basket. It remained exciting until the final phase.
Draymond Green came back to a point 1’40” from the tip-in, but Eric Gordon promptly countered from a distance. Green did the same, but neither Curry nor Cook could hit their throws in the end, so the Warriors had to foul at 95:94 and still 10 seconds on the clock. Cook in particular had a huge chance, as his opponent Paul remained injured on the other side of the field, but the completely free threesome did not fall. Trevor Ariza only scored one freebie and Golden State took the break. However, the Dubs had to go full court, as Green played a pass before the time-out.
Curry brought the splitting forward, but passed it on to Green, who then stumbled. Gordon finally brought home the game with two converted free throws.
Houston got his offense mainly from the Guard trio from Harden (19, 5/21 FG), Gordon (24) and CP3 (20, 6 Assists). For Golden State, only the four all-stars Curry (22, 2/8 trio), Thompson (23), Durant (29, 8/22 FG) and Green (12, 15 assists, 6 TO) scored two-digit points.
Houston Rockets vs. Golden State Warriors 98:94, series 3:2 (BOXSCORE)
0/7 out of the field in the first half? No problem. After the change he was unlike his colleague Harden unbelievably dominant and kept the Rockets-Offense partly alive on his own. He met again some incredibly heavy throws, played outstanding defense and found his teammates again and again. Bitter: At the last minute he stepped on Cook’s foot and had to leave early. A possible absence would be extremely bitter for Paul and the Rockets.
What’s wrong with the heart and soul of the warriors? Green picked up his second poster against Harden and again, as in some other situations, seemed unusually slow and let Capela dupe him several times. In the first round he had already collected 3 turnovers, but had not played an assistant. Symbolically the scene shortly before the end, when he tripped and thus missed the possible chance to equalize or to extend.
Steve Kerr tried a lot in this game and mixed up his rotations wildly. Quinn Cook and David West saw early in the first quarter, Cook was even allowed to get to it in crunchtime. West, on the other hand, had some problems in the second half, because Paul was always looking for this mismatch and exploited it mercilessly.
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