Posted on May 11, 2019, by Travis Pulver
The Houston Rockets had a chance; it wasn’t an easy one, but they had it. Kevin Durant was going to be out for the remainder of the series. Beating Steph Curry and Klay Thompson would still be a significant challenge. But it would not be as tougher as beating Curry, Thompson, and Durant.
All they had to do was get by Game Six first; they had to keep Curry from heating up and play their own game. For a half, it looked like it might work.
The first half was a close one and ended with the score tied up, 57-57. Klay Thompson had been shooting well, but Steph Curry had yet to score a point. As long as the Rockets could keep him down, they just might get away with a win—but they didn’t.
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Curry still didn’t have a great night from the floor (9-20) and wasn’t sharp from three-point range either (4-11), but he was perfect at the free throw line (11-11). But that ended up doing the trick for the Warriors as Curry scored 33 points in the second half to lead the Warriors to a 118-113 win over the Rockets.
“At halftime we’re tied, and I had zero points; you’ve got to like that situation,” Curry said after the game, via ESPN.
Houston took the lead early in the third and was able to hold it through the majority of the quarter. But they were unable to build much of a lead and were only up by five entering the fourth, 87-82. They managed to hold onto the lead until about midway through the fourth when Steph Curry tied the game up at 97-97.
A 28-footer by Curry put the Warriors up five, 102-97, a few moments later. But the Rockets were not about to give up. They stayed within striking distance the rest of the way, but they needed a break. However, they needed someone on the Warriors to miss a shot or make a bad pass or something—and no one did.
The Rockets got within three, 116-113, when Austin Rivers hit a three-pointer with 3.6 seconds left. But they had to foul, and Curry hit both free throws to put the Warriors up by five and seal the win.
“We’ve let a lot of opportunities slip away … if you don’t take advantage of opportunities you end up on the losing side,” James Harden said after the game.
Harden, as usual, led the way for the Rockets with 35 points followed by Chris Paul with 27 and P.J. Tucker with 15.
But the night belonged to the Splash Brothers. Klay Thompson finished the night with 27 points after scoring 21 in the first half. However, it was Curry that led the way with 33 points on the night—most of it in the fourth quarter. After going scoreless in the first half, he recorded ten in third and then poured in 23 in the fourth.
“A night like tonight doesn’t happen without belief in myself,” Curry said.
The Warriors will get a chance to rest for a few days as they wait to see who they will face in the Western Conference Finals. Their opponent will be decided on Sunday when the Denver Nuggets and Portland Trail Blazers face off in Game Seven of their series.