They are bought into this mantra, all right.
Advertisement
Dressed in street clothes on the sideline, Curry was jubilant at the sight of the Warriors’ smashing success.
The loss of Curry showcased the depth and talent of the defending champions.
In what became a gentleman’s sweep (and would have been a straight up sweep if not for Harden’s Game 3 game-winner), it’d be easy to write off the series as the meaningless domination of a lackluster, uninspired Rockets team. It has been that way all season.
The Play: Heading into their first game facing a minimum two-week absence from point guard Stephen Curry, the Golden State Warriors soundly dispatched the Houston Rockets, 114-81. “There were too many ups and downs, so you end up a. 500 ball club because we let opportunities go”. “You lose your point guard, you lose the MVP, and to be able to throw Shaun Livingston out there, he’s a fantastic basketball player, a great teammate”, coach Steve Kerr said. “He’s got one of the kindest hearts you’ll ever meet, a humble guy, so we look up to him”.
Whenever Golden State’s coaching and training staff determine that Curry is at 100 percent, he will return. “Steph was having a great time”. And fans at the Oracle Arena drummed home that point, wearing matching gold T-shirts that read “Strength in Numbers” across the front.
Losing Curry might not be the equivalent of losing Irving off of an already Love-less team in the finals and the Rockets certainly aren’t the Spurs, but the idea of playing without someone who accounts for 30 points a game and is the team leader should have been terrifying for the Warriors.
“Urgency of the game and we did not want to go back to Houston – it’s a long flight”, Thompson said of his extra motivation. The Warriors are more than just Stephen Curry and, right now, the Rockets are little more than James Harden. We just didn’t have the chemistry this year. “So we’ve got to make sure we’re more solid, which we have been, the last couple games in particular”. His backcourt mate Klay Thompson showed he is a superstar in his own right, of sorts. But the downtime is welcome news to his Warriors teammates, who get some time to rest their bodies, and to the team’s coaches, who can fine-tune their Curry-less strategies. And every player on the bench, despite his minutes or role.
Terry also said that if the Rockets won the title this season, he would add another tattoo of the championship trophy. It’s good to have a few games under our belts without Steph. He was given a two-week timetable to return after an MRI revealed a Grade 1 sprain.
“Who the hell knows what’s going to happen from one game to the next? It’s really fun”, Kerr said.
Whether the Blazers will have enough to trouble the Warriors, even without Curry, remains to be seen.
Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green celebrates a score against the Houston Rockets during the first half in Game 5 of a first-round NBA basketball playoff series Wednesday, April 27, 2016, in Oakland, Calif.
“Beat this team 4-1, pretty much without Steph the entire series – I think we had him for two halves – so it says a lot about this team”.
“Game 4, the third quarter just really took the life out of us”, Harden said. Amused, Golden State just shrugged it off. If Game seven is needed, it would be on Saturday back at the Staples Center.
Advertisement
“It’s good for our guys’ confidence”, Kerr said.
