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Friday, March 31, 2017

Warriors take care of the Rockets again, win streak moves to 10

OAKLAND — The Warriors won a 10th straight game on Friday night, their third victory in the past four days against a conference rival from Texas.

After sweeping a Rockets, Spurs back to back in San Antonio and Houston, they returned home and took down the Rockets again: XXX-XXX, further solidifying their place atop the Western Conference, now needing only a combination of four wins or Spurs losses over the final two weeks to officially clinch homecourt throughout the playoffs.

Friday night’s win came attached with more late-game drama than many of the other wins during this streak. The Rockets led by two heading to the fourth and maintained that slim edge with less than eight minutes left. But the Warriors closed strong — which has been an occasional issue for them this season, but not of late.

Matt Barnes had a layup to tie it at 92 at the 7:39 mark. Twenty-two seconds later, Andre Iguodala ripped down one of his six rebounds, sprinted the floor and squirmed through traffic and smoothly laid in a reverse to give the Warriors a lead they’d never lose.

Before the game, Steve Kerr trumpeted Andre Iguodala’s Sixth Man of the Year candidacy, saying, though he’s not near the top of the leaderboard in bench scoring this season, he “impacts winning” far more than any other candidate. Hours later, Iguodala continued his torrid March with another crucial all-around performance in Kevin Durant’s absence.

That included 14 points, six rebounds, four assists and two blocks. One of those was patented Iguodala, catching Houston big man Clint Capela too loose with the ball as he went up for a layup and perfectly timing a bat down strip block that tumbled off Capela’s leg and out of bounds to the Warriors.

That was only one of the Warriors’ season-high 14 blocks on Friday night. Entering the season, many were skeptical about Golden State’s ability to protect the rim after losing Andrew Bogut. But the Warriors lead the league in blocked shots and, even without Kevin Durant (who his ninth in the NBA in blocks per game), have been swatting shots at a massive rate of late.

The Warriors had some first quarter offensive struggles. Klay Thompson had a pull-up airball. The Rockets put James Harden on Zaza Pachulia and the Warriors awkwardly tried to feed Pachulia in the post, which failed. Plus the focus level was low. With Capela on the wrong side of the court putting his fallen shoe back on, the Warriors didn’t recognize the 5-on-4 advantage, Draymond Green and Pachulia bumbled into each other and then, after allowing Capela to get back into the play, Green airballed a floater and yelled at Pachulia.

Things were a struggle until JaVale McGee entered in the second quarter and provided his best minutes in awhile. McGee scored 13 points in six second half minutes, leading the team in scoring at halftime.

Then after halftime, McGee had three blocks in less than a minute and four of his season-high five in the third quarter. As a team, the Warriors had seven blocks in the third quarter and the Rockets, constantly searching for fouls, didn’t shoot a free throw.

One of McGee’s third quarter blocks was a nifty help-side swat of a James Harden layup, as the MVP candidate continued his frustrating season-long struggles against the Warriors defense. Harden went 4-of-18 on Friday night, missed seven of his nine 3s and turned it over six times.

In his four games against Golden State this season, Harden finished 23-of-74 overall (31 percent), 5-of-34 on 3s and turned it over 26 times. The Rockets lost three of the four games.

But midway through the fourth, they were still in it.

Iguodala’s layup put the Warriors up two. Ian Clark made a 3 moments later. Shaun Livingston bounced in for a reverse layup. The lead spiked to seven quickly.

Then the Warriors kept the pressure on in the key moments, capped in the final minute by a falling, fading, off-balance Steph Curry bank shot to give him 24 points on the night and the Warriors a 10th straight win. The Warriors closed on a 19-6 run.

 



via NAIJA Society
http://ift.tt/2huhMvk

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