J-Speaks: Warriors and Rockets Run It Back in Semifinals

Last season the Houston Rockets had the reigning NBA champion Golden State Warriors on the ropes after winning Game 5 to take a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference Finals. They lost their star lead guard due to injury and while they led both Games 6 and 7 at intermission, their inability to make threes and slow down the high-powered ball moving offense of their opponent they lost both games and saw the Warriors sweep the four-time defending Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers to win their second straight title. While took longer for this rematch to happen on the Warriors end, the two teams who played an epic Western Conference playoff series last season meet again for the second straight season and the third time in the last four years. The Rockets hope this time they can get shoot their passed them, especially since they enter this tilt more vulnerable than ever at least on the surface. 

As in any epic showdown between two heavyweight NBA squads, there will be serious star power with perennial All-Stars in two-time Kia MVP in Stephen Curry, 2014 Kia MVP and two-time Finals MVP in Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson on the Warriors side and reigning Kia MVP James Harden and nine-time All-Star Chris Paul on the Rockets side. 

While both teams had to fight off two game opponents in the First-Round in the Los Angeles Clippers and Utah Jazz in five and six games respectably, but aside from the Warriors not having All-Star DeMarcus Cousins due to a quad injury both teams come into this series relatively healthy. However, according to Warriors’ head coach Steve Kerr, the “Splash Brothers” in Curry and Thompson are questionable for Game 1 of the series that begins Sunday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. on ABC due to right ankle injuries sustained in their 129-110 series clinching win in Game 6 at the Clippers on Friday night. 

“He’s OK,” Kerr said on Saturday of Thompson. “He and Steph both came in this morning to get some treatment…We’ll see how they’re doing [Sunday]. I’m not going to make a definitive statement on whether they’ll both play. Let’s just call it questionable. And there’s nothing implied there. They both came in today and got some work, and we’ll see how they’re doing [Sunday].” 

Just like their series last spring, head coach Mike D’Antoni team’s fate in taking down the Warriors will come down to whether they can make three-pointers consistently and can James Harden be productive offensively? 

In their Game 7 loss in the Conference Finals last season, the Rockets went 7 for 34 from distance, which included 27 consecutive misses. While Harden averaged 32 points in Game 6 and 7, but he made just 6 for 25 from three-point range in those contests. 

While Harden, a leading candidate for Kia MVP averaged 33.3 points and 9.3 assists against the Warriors during the regular-season, shot just 40 percent from the floor and 33 percent from three-point range.

The Rockets are dead set on playing their style with Harden and Paul in isolation sets with the floor spread or bust. 

Perhaps the biggest key to the Rockets finally taking down the Warriors in the postseason is Paul being healthy and productive. 

Without their floor general for Games 6 and 7 in last season’s Conference Finals, the Rockets fell to pieces in the second-half of both games and lost. 

It was a continuation of the aforementioned nine-time All-Star and his team’s dating back to his time with the Clippers and the then New Orleans Hornets of him coming up short in the playoffs whether it be due to an untimely injury or his team not being able to close out their opponent.

Good health, coupled with consistent defense, making threes consistently and a series victory over the Warriors would do wonders in changing the perception of the future Hall of Famer not being able to deliver in the postseason, where he has made just one appearance in the Conference Finals coming into this postseason in the Conference Finals. 

“We just got to worry about us,” Paul, who squad counting the playoffs improved to an 18-2 mark when holding opponent under 100 points said to TNT’s Allie LaForce about their approach going into the Conference Semis after the Rockets 100-93 win in Game 5 on Wednesday. 

Harden added in his postgame presser, “We’ve been playing some really good defense. Like I said, when we knock down shots it makes it tougher for the opposing team. So, tonight we barely got 100 but we held them [Jazz] under 100 and that’s the goal.” 

The Warriors on the other hand are dead set on moving the ball and setting screens to get each other open to score at the offensive end. That formula has served them well during this title of run of three titles in four seasons—looking to win their third in succession and fourth in the last five seasons. 

What has also helped the Warriors capture two straight Larry O’Brien trophies is that they have the most unstoppable offensive force in “The Association” in Durant, who after two below average performances in the opening-round against the Clippers finished the series in style with 38, 33, 45 and a playoff career-high 50 points in the Game 6 129-110 clinching win on Friday night on ESPN. 

The other factor that has separated the Warriors from the rest of the NBA is their ability to put the clamps on their opponent’s offensive production. 

When they brought a serious focus to that end of the floor it has resulted in victory and when they have not, especially in the First-Round against the Clippers, they have lost. 

In their victories in Games 1, 3 and 4 against the Clippers, the managed just 104, 105 and 105 points. In the defeats in Games 2 and 5 at home, the visitors from L.A. scored 135 and 129, with Kia Sixth Man of the Year candidates Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell dominating the two-time defending champs in the paint and from the perimeter. 

In the 135-131 loss in Game 2, the Warriors coughed up a 31-point second half as Williams scored a playoff career-high of 36 points and 11 assists on 13 for 22 shooting off the bench, while Harrell had 25 points with 10 rebounds hitting all nine of his field goal attempts. The Clippers in that epic comeback had 85 points after intermission making 8 for 14 from three-point range; had 34 points in the paint; registered 10 steals and scored 29 points off the Warriors turnovers. 

In their 129-121 loss in Game 5 at home, the Warriors surrendered 71 first-half points to the Clippers and finished the game shooting 54.1 percent from the field; were out-rebounded 53-43 and were outscored in the paint 54-38. It marked the third time in the Coach Kerr era they allowed 100-plus points in the first three quarters in a playoff game, which dropped them to 0-3 when that happens. 

Along with being consistent at the offensive end, the Warriors must bring a serious attention to detail at the defensive end, which starts with the three-headed monster at center with veteran Andrew Bogut, Kevon Looney and maybe Jordan Bell. Their main objective is to keep the lob-and-catch attempts at the rim for Rockets’ center Clint Capela off of either Harden or Paul pick-and-rolls to a minimum. 

Besides Bogut, Looney and Bell needing to make a impact at the defensive end, that is where former Kia Defensive Players of the Year Draymond Green, the Warriors heart-and-soul has made his presence known during this run of championships. 

The former Michigan State product has been up-and-down for much of the regular-season took responsibility for the Warriors poor defensive efforts in Games 2 and 5. In Game 6, while Durant torched the Clippers with the first 50-point performance of his playoff career, Green had the fifth triple-double of his postseason career with 16 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists, and 4 block shots.  

The Warriors in that victory held the Clippers to 39.6 percent shooting; committed just 10 turnovers, while forcing 15 of their own that led to 23 points; registered nine block shots and outscored them in the paint 62-42. Harrell and Williams were held in check combining for 18 points on 7 for 28 from the field. 

“We’re confident in ourselves,” Green said to ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt after the Game 6 clincher on Friday night. “Our ability to turn defense into offense. We know what we’re capable of. We’ve shown that year-after-year, and it’s an opportunity for us to do it again.” 

Since the Warriors brought on Durant when he signed as an unrestricted free agent two summers ago, only the Rockets (8-6), Jazz (4-3) and Portland Trail Blazers (4-3) have had winning records against them, which includes the playoffs. The Warriors though have registered five wins by double-digits over the guys from “Clutch City” in their recent postseason tilts, which includes a 29-point and 41-point wins in Game 2 and 5 respectably in last season’s Conference Finals. The Rockets have had the advantage when the game have been close with a 7-3 mark in games within five points in the final five minutes. 

The quartet of Curry (4 for 13), Green (1 for 2), Durant (0 for 7) and Thompson (0 for 6) in those last 10 games shot a combined 5 for 30 from three-point range. In contrast, they shots a combined 40 for 87 from distance against the other 29 teams in the clutch during that span. 

“We have a pretty good sense of what Houston likes to do,” Curry, who had 24 points, six rebounds and six assists in the Game 6 win at the Clippers said about facing the Rockets again. “They’ll be sutile nuances we’ll have to adjust but like the momentum we created tonight and hopefully can have that will carry over Sunday.”  

The Houston Rockets played this entire season with the goal of getting another crack at beating the Warriors. They will get that opportunity for the fourth time in the last five seasons and both teams are ready for Round three. 

“We said all year lets run it back. Well okay. I guess we’re going to run it back,” Coach D’Antoni said. 

“I want to face them,” Capela said after the Game 5 clincher. “We’ve been working on it all year long. I mean if you want to be a champion you got to beat the champion. So, at some point you got to do it, right?”

“This is a series everybody’s been waiting for,” Green said to Van Pelt. “They’ve [Rockets] been talking about it for a whole year about running it back. They got what they want. The fans got what they want. Now it’s time for us to go do what we do.” 

Green added, “We don’t care who we play. We’ve shown that year-after-year. Whoever you put up there we’re ready to go. So, they wanted us, they got us. We got what we wanted, which is another series, another chance to defend a championship.”  

Prediction: Warriors in six games. 

Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 4/24/19 8 p.m. “Utah Jazz versus Houston Rockets,” Game 5 First-Round on TNT with Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller, and Allie LaForce; 4/25/19 1 a.m. edition of “Inside the NBA,” presented by Kia on TNT with Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, and Shaquille O’Neal; 4/27/19 1 a.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime,” presented by State Farm with Casey Stern, Steve Smith and Billy King; 4/27/19 www.nba.com West Semifinals Preview: “Rockets Aim To Finally Knock Off Rival Warriors,” by Shaun Powell; 4/26/19 10 p.m. “Golden State Warriors versus Los Angeles Clippers,” on ESPN presented by Mountain Dew with Mike Breen, Mark Jackson, Jeff Van Gundy, and Doris Burke; 4/27/19 1 a.m. edition of ESPN’s “Sportscenter,” with Scott Van Pelt; 4/28/19 www.espn.com story, “Kerr: Curry, Thompson questionable for Game 1,” by Nick Friedell;  www.espn.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/gs; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Houston_Rockets_seasons.