“We know how much he means to this team”, Livingston said of Curry.
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Even without Curry, the Warriors were sublime on both ends of the floor. With the reigning MVP in street clothes on the bench, others stepped up to the occasion and showed the whole world why they are the best team in the league.
“I just feel really blessed to have gotten out of that situation with only an MCL sprain”, Curry said.
Despite a promise by veteran Jason Terry that they would win game 5, the Golden State Warriors roll over the Houston Rockets, 114-81, to advance to the Western Conference Semifinals. It’s just hard to see the Clippers winning two straight games (the first on the road) with J.J. Redick as their best scorer.
With Curry’s injury putting a damper on the Warriors’ mood, they got some relief by facing one of their favorite patsies. Shaun Livingston however is hardly the run of the mill backup point.
Harden had 18 points in the quarter, hitting six of eight shots. “So you end up a. 500 ballclub because we let opportunities go”. He stuck with his old-man game and the Warriors offensive flow was superb.
The interim coach kept it real and said it well. Livingston plays great perimeter defense while also being able to take smaller guys in the post. He shot 7 of 11 from long range, 10 for 14 overall. “We’d rather him be out there, but when he’s not out there, we have to pull together”.
“That was the series in the nutshell”, Terry said of the second half of Game 4. “We forced it to come down to this game”. In the six quarters after he went down in Game 4 on Sunday, Golden State outscored Houston 179-119. The Rockets shot just 32 percent from the field and outside of Harden the Rockets were 19 of 73 (26 percent).
And then there’s James Harden. Center Hassan Whiteside did his thing and dominated the paint with his 11 points, 12 rebounds, and 3 blocked shots. Whatever blueprint for success the Warriors found duringthat stretchwill serve them well until Curry returns.
“Like they turned their energy up in the beginning of the third [quarter], and we were exhausted”, Rivers said. Kerr wouldn’t say whether Walton in fact was going to interview, a meeting that would be likely to happen in the Bay Area given Golden State’s schedule. They’re running plays for him and he’s knocking them down. He told Sherwood Strauss the injury “could have been 10 times worse”. Green was his usual high-intensity self, but turned it down just enough to avoid any turnovers to go with his 8 assists.
The Warriors picked up where they left off in the second half of Game 4.
Splash Brother Klay Thompson rained threes to lead the Warriors to a big win over the Houston Rockets Wednesday night. The possibility is looking higher and higher. Kerr acknowledged that the Los Angeles Lakers requested permission to talk to Warriors assistant coach Luke Walton about their head-coaching opening. “Alexander and Morey believe that Harden will play a role in helping to hire a coach and potentially sign free agents”, revealed Calvin Watkins of ESPN. I hope to get back sooner. I still expect him to miss the first two-three games of the Semi-Finals, but you never know in sports.
The Rockets narrowly avoided missing the playoffs and barely put up a fight before their first-round elimination by Golden State in Game 5 wrapped up a tough season. The morale of the Rockets locker room was down, as expected.
We’ll have time coming up to look at the nitty gritty of the games, but for now we’ll just keep it simple: who is your choice for Warriors series MVP for the first round?
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If the Warriors keep playing like this, it won’t be too long before we hear those words out of another player’s mouth.
