Steph Curry Showed Up As The Warriors Rolled To A Blowout Game 3 Win
Steph Curry….not hurt! Curry had his first breakout game of this Western Conference Finals, and boy was it a doozy. We got a little bit of everything from Curry tonight, some killer penetration and nice finishes at the rim, to big time cocky Steph, nailing step backs from 30 feet. Tonight we saw just what happens when the Warriors flex on you, it’s pretty suffocating. This isn’t to say the Rockets played well and still got smashed, they stunk, but it speaks more to the waves that GS can kill you with. Steph and Durant combined for nearly half their points, and the Rockets were already having a tough time trying to figure out how to limit Durant, now they have to worry about a fully healthy Steph? Oh, and Klay didn’t even shoot that well and they won by 41. You read that right, 41 points.
The Rockets at the end of the day have to play nearly flawless basketball to win in this arena against a team of this caliber. Right from the start, they were anything but perfect. I know Rockets fans won’t want to hear it, but it does not appear that Chris Paul and James Harden are separating themselves from their playoff narratives. A brutal Game 2 where they went a combined 15-38, they backed it up tonight with a stellar 12-32 with 6 TOs. I think it’s fair to say that HOU’s best players have been a bit of a letdown, and seeing as how it was already going to be an uphill battle even if they played great, with performances like tonight it’s a death wish.
Unfortunately, outside of a couple sweet plays from Gerald Green, the Rockets supporting cast wasn’t all that great either. Some regression was obviously to be expected considering this game was on the road, but it was a pretty big drop from Game 2, as Ariza/Gordon/Tucker finished with just 23 points on 8-24 shooting. With the Rockets ending the night with 40/32% splits and 19 TOs, I don’t think anyone was all that surprised with how this ended. Now, just like BOS, the goal is to split. The Rockets could always have another game in which they get hot from three, but the problem is the can’t really stop GS from getting there either if they play the type of defense we saw tonight.
I’m still praying we get at least 6, ideally 7, but damn this looks like it could be over in 5.