Their sluggish start to the season is starting to become a distant memory. By winning well against the Rockets (120-101), in a “back-to-back” for both teams, the Warriors recorded a seventh victory in their last nine outings. This allows them to go back to 6th place in the West and only have three victories behind the Suns, at the top of the conference.
To dissect the evolution of the score of this part, it suffices to isolate the first quarter from the rest. The Californians have indeed signed a very high level start to the meeting, ending with 39 points scored in the first twelve minutes (39-23). This first gap, which will increase to 25 units in the following minutes (52-27), will however be questioned later.
Largely led at the break (68-52), the Rockets remained at a reasonable distance in the third quarter, before approaching much more seriously seven minutes from the end (100-96). It thus took Stephen Curry and Andrew Wiggins, as well as the most unexpected Moses Moody, to deliver a dose of long-distance skill to repel the Texans for good.
WHAT YOU MUST REMEMBER
– A dream start. ” The first 18 minutes were phenomenal. I thought it was perhaps the best time we’ve had this year to start a game. In the middle of the second quarter, perhaps with eight minutes remaining, we had not lost a ball for 16 assists. We defended, we took the rebounds, we did whatever it took “, enumerates Steve Kerr to describe the start of match almost perfect of his troop. “ And then we lost our focus. That’s our biggest challenge right now, trying to maintain our focus long enough not to lose a lead and allow teams to come back “Adds the coach whose team had already done the trick the day before against the Bulls.
– Klay Thompson resting. Jordan Poole enjoyed his fifth start this season due to the absence of Stephen Curry’s companion. Klay Thompson was indeed off for this second night of “back-to-back”, the fourth of fifteen in the Warriors season. ” We hope that he will play back-to-backs later in the year. He will do a lot of work on the court to try to simulate as best we can, what a ‘back-to-back’ would be for him. “, describes his coach.
– The Rockets torpedoed inside. The Rockets shot chart on this meeting is quite eloquent. Unable to punish outside, the Texans have however done a lot of damage in the racket of the Warriors with… 72 points scored against only 34 conceded. Unfortunately for them, it wasn’t enough to compete with the defending champions at all.
TOPS/FLOPS
✅ Andrew Wiggins. While Jordan Poole was also hurting the Rockets, the former Wolves player turned into the second member of the “Splash Brothers” by signing his best performance of the year and tying his career high at 3-pointers . Simply impressive.
✅ Stephen Curry. New high-class performance for the leader who signs his 7th double-double of the season and consolidates the bases of his most complete season in his career. We will remember that the crazy shooter only took four shots in the racket and not a single one at mid-distance.
⛔ Rockets shooters. With his three award-winning baskets scored in 17 minutes, Moses Moody scored as many 3-point shots as the entire opposing team. This is to say the exercise of clumsiness delivered by the Texans who certainly evolved without one of their best weapons, Eric Gordon. The Green–Porter Jr. tandem finished with a terrifying 1/14 from behind the arc on aggregate…
THE FOLLOWING
Warriors (13-11) : reception of the Pacers, Monday.
Rockets (6-17) : reception of the 76ers, Monday.
