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The Golden State Warriors began their second round of the NBA playoffs with a 104-100 home win over the Houston Rockets.
Kevin Durant scored 24 of his 35 points in the second half of Sunday's victory at Oracle Arena, while Stephen Curry offered 18 points, including a dagger at the last minute:
The Rockets had a chance to tie in the final seconds, but a James Harden Miss has actually ended the game:
Harden finished with 35 points while Eric Gordon added 27, but that was not enough to prevent the Warriors from taking a 1-0 lead in the conference semifinals. 39; West.
Golden State has won the first game in 11 consecutive series since 2016.
It appears to be a competitive series after both teams contested seven games in last year's conference final, but the Warriors got off to a good start after a first win.
Draymond Green and X-Factor again after an unforgettable regular season
Throughout his career, Draymond Green has built his reputation as an elite defenseman and versatile offensive contributor who can sometimes help on the scoreboard. He did very little in the regular season, registering the smallest number of shares won since his rookie year, per year. Basketball reference.
The score was particularly disappointing with an average of only 7.4 points per game and 28.5% of three-point shooting. This has weakened a dominant formation by putting more pressure on Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson for that they carry the charge.
Fortunately for Golden State, we saw old Draymond in the first game.
The striker filled the scoresheet with 14 points, nine assists and nine rebounds, although his impact exceeded the numbers:
Nick Friedell @NickFriedell
Draymond was great again today. He is already on his way to a triple double – with 8 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds – active all over the ground, causing havoc.
Marcus Thompson @ThompsonScribe
Draymond kills the Rockets today. When he does not score, he pushes the tempo to create opportunities
Green was aggressive at the attack, looking for his own shot while finding his teammates when they were open. Defensively, he brought the physicality and energy needed to win a series of this magnitude.
The regular season gave the impression that the triple All Star was about to lose his career and that he could no longer be trusted to be an impact player. However, it now seems like he is sparing all his efforts for most of the year.
In the sixth decisive game against the Los Angeles Clippers, Green made a triple double with 16 points, 14 rebounds, 10 assists and four blocks. His performance led to another strong performance against the Rockets.
If this continues, it will give the Warriors a greater margin of error in games where Curry, Thompson or Durant are not at their best.
Rockets are roasted without better play from James Harden's teammates
Although James Harden has a chance to win the MVP title this season, this series will likely return to production from the rest of the cast.
Harden shot only 9 of 28 of the field on Sunday (4 of 16 over a distance of three points), so that was obviously not his best game. Nevertheless, he has once again found a way to remain productive in attack with 35 points.
The solution against the Warriors, however, is to get production from many different sources to follow the display board with one of the best history offenses.
In the first game, Eric Gordon (27 points) and Chris Paul (17 points and four assists) were key to staying competitive before suffering a loss.
Nevertheless, the rest of the rotation left much to be desired.
Clint Inputs Capela and P J The Tuckers have more value on the defensive side but remain disappointments with a total of four points and nine rebounds.
Although Nene offered help, the performance was not excellent from the second unit.
It's the difference between a close defeat and a win on a potentially changing road.
As we saw last round, a deep rotation can cause problems to the warriors. Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell dominated the Clippers' bench while many different players took off offensively at different times in the series.
With Austin Rivers excluded due to illness, per Tim MacMahon ESPN, the Rockets just did not have enough weapons on the ground.
Houston has shown at times this year that he did not need a big harden game to win. In the third game against Utah Jazz, the star player fired 3 times out of 20, but it did not matter, because the Rockets had six players in double digits and 15 times.
If the team manages to find that kind of balance around Harden, there will be an opening to dispel the anger and eventually knock out the Warriors.
And after?
The second game of the series will also take place in Oakland Tuesday at 22:30. AND while the Rockets are trying to avoid falling into a 0-2 hole.
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