Even without Kevin Durant, the Houston Rockets (12-4) beat the Golden State Warriors (10-10) 104-100 at Chase Center on Wednesday.
Reed Sheppard led all scorers with 31 points. Stephen Curry left the game with 35 seconds remaining, and his injury status will be the biggest storyline from this game.
Below are three takeaways from Houston’s NBA Cup win.
Rockets Stifle Steph
The Rockets play Curry tougher than any team in the NBA. Not only do they guard him with great on-ball defenders in Amen Thompson and Josh Okogie, but they also blitz many of the pick-and-rolls when he’s the ball-handler.
Curry had just 14 points on 4-of-13 shooting and seven turnovers. The fact that he had just 13 shots illustrates how difficult it is for Curry to just get a shot off against Houston. Curry came into the game averaging 19.8 shot attempts per game.
The Rockets also put Curry in lots of ball-screen actions on defense, effectively sapping his energy for the offensive end.
It should also be noted that a key officiating stretch came at Curry’s expense. First, Thompson lowered his shoulder into Curry and knocked him on the floor for what was originally called an offensive foul. The call was overturned after a challenge.
Moments later, Curry Eurostepped into Aaron Holiday, who moved to his right to take the charge. The Warriors challenged it, and the refs did not overturn it.
Sometimes it feels like Curry is battling the other team and the refs.
Green Outplays Sengun
The final point-rebound-assist stat lines for Draymond Green and Alperen Sengun might make one think this was an equal fight.
Sengun had 16 points, six rebounds and six assists, while Green had 12 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.
But Green forced Sengun into 7-of-18 shooting, and most importantly, Green (plus-11) dominated Sengun (minus-16) in the plus-minus battle.
Green has been dealing with a foot issue, but he wasn’t going to miss another opportunity to stifle the one-time All-Star big.
Lengthy Offensive Droughts a Growing Concern
The Warriors went 4:53 without a field goal in the third quarter and scored only two points in that stretch. The Rockets went on a 12-2 run during that drought, which changed the game.
Though the Warriors don’t have the drivers and paint scorers to consistently score inside the arc, they need to read the game at times and get something going toward the basket.
Golden State will continue to shoot threes at a prolific pace—it entered the game second in three-point attempts per game—but during droughts, it needs to get Jimmy Butler more shot attempts.
After checking in for the last 2:45 of that drought, Butler took just one shot. The Warriors needed to call more plays for him to stop the bleeding.
