This Warriors team has every reason to be confident considering Curry was barely available in that first-round series, yet they still got throught it pretty easily.
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After closing out the Houston Rockets in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series, the Golden State Warriors are awaiting their second-round opponent.
The Warriors will now face the victor of the Los Angeles Clippers-Portland Trailblazers series. The difference is that series was the Western Conference finals, and that Rockets team had deservedly earned the No. 2 seed in the West, with star James Harden proving a deserving runner-up to Curry for the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award.
According to the initial diagnosis, Curry will be re-evaluated after two weeks of rehabilitation. “When he’s not out there, we have to pull together”.
Klay Thompson finished with 27 points, 21 coming from the 3-point line, while Green added 15 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.
“He showed he’s the best two guard in the NBA”, Green said.
“We’re blessed, we are really lucky. He took care of the ball”. Thompson scored 27 points on seven three-pointers as the Warriors won the series, 4-1. He set it up after grabbing a long rebound. Center Hassan Whiteside did his thing and dominated the paint with his 11 points, 12 rebounds, and 3 blocked shots.
“I’m guaranteeing it”, Terry told the media on Tuesday.
The Rockets committed 18 turnovers, compared to 10 for the Warriors.
The NBA’s leading scorer is sidelined for at least two weeks with a sprained MCL that happened when he slipped awkwardly on the final play of the first half of Sunday’s Game 4 and his legs split apart. That did not even look like it would be the case for the briefest second, as the Warriors came out strong and pounced on the Rockets en route to an easy 114-81 victory.
“Steph’s passionate, so what you see out there is genuine”, Curry fill-in Shaun Livingston said.
Former no. 2 draft pick Michael Beasley, straight from a season with the Shandong Golden Sharks in China, was the only other Rocket to score in double figures, finishing with 11 points. The problem was that the Warriors led 37-20 after the first quarter, with his teammates combining to go 0 for 14 from the field. It would seem nearly laughable to suggest a team could get by the San Antonio Spurs and most likely the Cleveland Cavaliers to win a title without their superstar, but the Warriors just might be able to do it, and here’s why. The team shot 42% from the field and 27.8% from beyond the arc, far lower than the 50%+ shooting they had in those two games. “Steph was having a great time”. “Not only is it depth, but depth of skill”. Golden State came out of the gate with 35 points in the first, which is the highest scoring quarter in the series. A little later, Thompson stole a pass and banked a layup at the other end.
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There was no better example of why the Rockets were so disappointing this season than this one game. And Green blasted a 3-pointer as the crowd erupted. The Rockets were blown out of Oracle Arena by 33 points and as a result were eliminated by the defending champions from the 2016 Playoffs.
