Dose: Might Wanna Guard No. 30
Life isn’t fair and neither are the 2014-15 Golden State Warriors. They made the Houston Rockets look like the Houston Saturday night YMCA rec team during a blowout 115-80 win in Houston on Saturday. The game was over at halftime with the Warriors holding a 25-point lead and they now moved to 55-0 when they have a 15-point lead in a game in their 2014-15 regular season and postseason.
As usual, Stephen Curry stole the show, scoring 40 points on 12-of-19 from the field with five rebounds, seven assists, one block, one steal and seven 3-pointers. The way he scored those 40 points was the story. He destroyed the Rockets on catch-and-shoot shots, which he’s been doing all playoffs. In his previous five games, Curry has an 85.5 effective field goal percentage on his shots without a dribble. So, yeah, the Rockets should have kept an eye on him. They lost him in transition, in halfcourt sets and on kick-out passes on offensive rebounds. You’d think by now someone’s only job would be to stick Stephen Curry the second the Warriors get the ball. Heck, they might even want to start defending No. 30 just as the ball comes off the rim after a Rockets’ miss. As easy as that sounds, Curry's uncanny ability to get space is just otherworldly.
It was a record-setting night for Curry, too. He broke Reggie Miller’s record for most 3-pointers in a postseason. Miller needed 22 games to get his record and Curry needed just 13 games. This is an amazing graphic from Synergy Sports:
All those transitions buckets are killer and are exactly why the Rockets need to pick him up earlier. Rockets injured point guard Patrick Beverley’s nickname is Mr. 94 Feet and the Rockets need to keep that mentality in mind.
Besides Steph, Andrew Bogut continues to have an outstanding postseason. He did foul out in his 20 minutes of action, but put up 12 points, 12 boards, one assist, one block and no turnovers. The Warriors have been using him at the top of the key a lot in their halfcourt sets, which allows Klay Thompson and Curry to get free without the ball. Bogut did also have four offensive boards today and contested a lot of shots. The former No. 1 pick had 10 points in the first six minutes of action to give him his best scoring quarter in any postseason. Looking ahead, Bogut’s paint presence is going to be massive for the Warriors against LeBron James and the Cavs. Tristan Thompson hitting the glass has also been a smashing success. Of course, he hasn’t faced a defensive presence like Bogut yet.
Draymond Green is just mauling the Rockets on defense. He hasn’t been too bad on the stat sheet either with a 17-point, 13-board game on Saturday. Green continues to bring the ball up for the Warriors and that aspect of his game is not talked about enough. Personally, I think that's why he didn't win Most Improved Player. Just like with Bogut being at the top of the key, his handling the ball is huge for spacing. Green and his agent are already trying to figure out how to spend his max deal. I'd suggest getting it in coins and swimming in a bank vault like Scrooge McDuck. It's good cardio.
Klay Thompson hasn’t been great in the postseason. He had a decent game on Saturday with 17 points, three rebounds, five assists, one steal, two blocks and two 3-pointers on 6-of-16 from the field. Here’s a look at his shot chart in the playoffs (not counting Saturday):
While we haven’t seen Klay hit 30 yet, that’s a solid shot chart and he’s still fairly efficient. He didn’t guard James Harden quite as much as the previous two games and maybe that’ll get him going. We’ll get a 30-point game from Klay soon. If the Rockets know any better, they’ll risk a big Klay game in order to stop Curry.
Harrison Barnes was a nightmare on Saturday, missing all nine of his shots from the field. He should be fine and he’s been very aggressive with the ball in the playoffs.
The Rockets had some of the worst off-ball defense you’ll see from an NBA team. That old guy who says “NBA players don’t play defense” will probably use Saturday night as exhibit A because the Warriors were getting back cut after back cut against them. It was basically a supercharged version of the Princeton offense.
James Harden couldn’t get to the rim on Saturday, finishing with 17 points on 3-of-16 from the field and 10-of-11 from the line. Harden wasn’t anywhere close to a triple-double either, adding three rebounds, four assists and one 3-pointer. The Rockets as a team had 15 assists in the loss and basically lost the will to take good shots. Harden was settling for mid-range jumpers again and it’s become obvious that’s the blueprint to stopping him. Yes, he went off for 38 points in Game 2, but he made some very tough shots. If his supporting cast keeps playing like this, he’ll need 50 points for the Rockets to get this series back to Oakland.
Speaking of which, the Rockets didn’t get much help from their role players on Saturday. Trevor Ariza (seven points, eight rebounds, two assists, two steals and one 3-pointer in 41 minutes), Jason Terry (four points and three assists), Corey Brewer (13 points on 5-of-15 from the field) and Terrence Jones (six points, five boards and one block) were all massive letdowns. They need to be better and their struggles have made it even more clear how deep Golden State is.
For now, we might not see a Game 5. That means we might not have hoops for eight days with the NBA Finals set to start on June 4. The Warriors also wouldn’t have to travel after Monday until June 8. I miss Spurs vs. Clippers.
As for the news side of things, the big blow from Saturday was that the Hawks are going to be without Kyle Korver for the rest of the postseason. While Korver has hardly been effective in the postseason, his loss is really going to ruin the flow and spacing for the Hawks. This is going to be fairly foreign territory with the Hawks having their other four starters and no Korver or Thabo Sefolosha (leg). In fact, it’s only been 101 minutes of action for Al Horford, Paul Millsap, Jeff Teague, DeMarre Carroll and a non-Korver/Thabo guy. Kent Bazemore leads the way with 66 of those 101 minutes with Dennis Schroder getting 31 minutes and Shelvin Mack getting three minutes. Bazemore would be the best bet for the biggest amount of playing time.
Of course, the Hawks are in deep trouble. In fact, the Hawks have a positive net rating when every player is off the court except for one: Kyle Korver. Hopefully, the Hawks can make it closer than the Rockets.
The other noteworthy item from Saturday is that Kyrie Irving did some work at practice. He is questionable to play, but why would the Cavs even risk it? The loss of Korver is much greater than the loss of Kyrie, so the Cavs will likely just rest him until ATL can get a win and put some pressure on them.
Enjoy the games and the rest of the holiday weekend!
