And as usual their star delivered.
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The Houston Rockets jumped out to an early lead on the Golden State Warriors, playing without Stephen Curry, before hanging on to win 97-96.
The Warriors overcame his absence and won 115-106 to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
After sitting out Game 2 against the Rockets, Steph Curry has been listed as a questionable for tonight’s game in Houston.
And on the next play, Trevor Ariza lobbed in a wayward pass into the hands of a streaking Shaun Livingston, who assisted Ian Clark for an easy layup. They played with a focus and fire we hadn’t seen before – and haven’t see since. The finish, we’ve seen before.
“In these moments, the biggest of moments, you can’t help but appreciate it”.
Green then lost the ball after receiving the inbound pass for his seventh turnover of the game. “My teammates definitely did a great job of handling their business in Game 2, which I had no doubts about, and if that’s the case in Game 3”.
Draymond Green said he cost the Warriors the playoff game.
Reserve forward Marreese Speights led Golden State with 22 points in 18 minutes. But given Curry’s history with ankle injuries, the Warriors, who are up 2-0 on the Rockets heading to Houston, are taking a cautious approach.
Kerr is hoping Curry will be fit enough to play in Game 4 on Sunday.
After a plea from Bickerstaff that his team be “nastier”, the Rockets were much more aggressive and scrappy than they had been in the first two games and led by as many as 17 points in the first half.
“Banged up as we are, we’re here to fight”, Nowitzki said.
Superstar forward Kevin Durant scored 34 points and do-it-all sidekick Russell Westbrook added 26 points and 15 assists in the Thunder’s 131-102 road victory Thursday night over the Dallas Mavericks at the American Airlines Center. Houston stretched that lead out to 17 points in the second quarter and seemed to be in command.
Despite an bad night from Green, whose final miscue was his seventh turnover of the game, and an equally insignificant game from Harrison Barnes, the Warriors still clawed back.
Wesley Matthews scored a team-high 22 points for the Mavericks.
Harden finished with a near triple-double of 25 points, 9 assists and 8 rebounds to give Houston the win and some much-needed life in the series.
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DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry combined for 42 points as the Toronto Raptors beat the Indiana Pacers 101-85 to take a 2-1 lead in their Eastern Conference series. The Raptors lead the best-of-seven first-round series 2-1 and have reclaimed the home-court advantage they squandered by losing the series opener last weekend. After reviewing the results of his MRI, Ainge has already said that Bradley will be sitting out for at least Game 3 and Game 4 against Atlanta, and in all likelihood won’t play another game in the series against the Hawks.
