Truly, there was not much of the narration of the Golden State Warriors’ 125-109 victory over the Houston Rockets. The Warriors are expected to win because they are the better team. When the match started, they looked like the better team.
They led by two points after one quarter, but they felt in control. They led 17 at halftime. The lead diminished and flowed in the second half, never getting so big that it felt like a blowout, but never getting so close that the Dubs were in danger of losing it.
It was just a solid, straight win.
Since the game itself was not particularly interesting, let’s change the replay format, and offer just a few interesting nuggets from the game.
- Somehow, Steph Curry is still finding new ways to impress us all. Curry continues to make dominance seem easy, and this time it comes in the form of 38 points on 13-for-21 shooting, including 8-for-15 from distance. He also had 8 hits 5 assists and did things like this:
- Curry also had just 23 points in the third quarter. Yeesh.
- The Warriors had an incredibly special PA announcer: Aaron “Showtime” Taylor, who discovered the team during one of their many trips to San Quentin. Williams has done phenomenal work, and you should read the article by Marcus Thompson II about him. What an inspiration.
- After a rough series of games, Jordan Poole returned in a big way and he was a legal difference. He threw in 21 points in just 25 minutes, while shooting 8-for-11 and stealing 4 assistants and 3. He looked magnificent and completely in control.
- Speaking of bank contributions, the Dubs have a lot of them. Kevon Looney was defensively solid and his +16 plus minus led the team. Mychal Mulder got a lot of playing time with Kelly Oubre Jr. and responds by 10 points to 4-for-7 shooting. Juan Toscano-Anderson played numerous great plays on both sides of the court and finished with 8 points on 3-for-4 shooting, 5 rebounds, 4 assistants, 1 steal and 1 block.
- Andrew Wiggins had his best game in a while, with 25 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, and 2 blocks.
- Now for the bad. It appears that James Wiseman injured his knee in the second quarter when he tried a dunk and did not return. He was on his way to the MRI machine.
It was not the cleanest performance, but the Warriors were strong throughout. And a win is a win is a win, and they needed one of them.