Watch Warriors @ Rockets Game 6 live on Sky Sports Arena in the early hours of Saturday morning (2am)
Thursday 9 May 2019 13:06, UK
The Golden State Warriors overcame the loss of Kevin Durant to beat the Houston Rockets 104-99 and take a 3-2 series lead. Sky Sports NBA analyst Mark Deeks offers his three takeaways from the game.
Tied 2-2 in their Western Conference semi-finals series, the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets both knew that last night's game was essentially a must-win. Whoever lost would have to then win consecutive games over the other, one at home and one on the road, with no margin for error, an unenviable task against their great rival.
It is now Houston's job to do just that, as Golden State pulled out an ugly but needed 104-99 win to take a 3-2 lead back to Houston, and to extend the life of Oracle Arena for at least one more game.
Neither side can be especially happy with their performance in that game, yet Golden State will be hugely relieved by the win, coming as it did without Kevin Durant down the stretch, who suffered a nasty-looking calf strain that early reports indicate may not be too severe after all.
Here are three key observations from the game.
Stephen Curry has not been at his best this postseason, and particularly in this series. There is nothing wrong per se with averages of 23.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game coming on a .623 true shooting percentage; they just are not quite the level expected of a transcendent player like Curry.
They are down on his regular season averages at a time when the game's greats are supposed to be stepping up, and with his 30-76 (39.4 per cent shooting) in the first four games of this series, including only 12-46 (26.1 per cent) from three-point range, Curry has not been the clinical deciding factor he so often has been in the past.
The good news is that after Durant went down, Curry stepped up. Durant left the game with two minutes left in the third quarter, and yet over the final 14 minutes, Curry put in 16 points on nine shots after recording only nine points on 14 shots prior to that point. The team needed leading, and he led them like the old Steph would have done.
By no means are the Warriors as a team, or Curry as an individual, better without Durant. Yet if his absence in the fourth quarter last night inadvertently galvanises Curry to getting back near his MVP best, it could be an oddly fortuitous thing to have happened.
At the peak of their dominance, the Warriors were distinguished by two key attributes that it seemed no other team could replicate.
Famously, they were uniquely dominant in third quarters. It was something of a hallmark to play loose in the first half, living with the resultant errors in the pursuit of making things fun still, then knuckling down for a stretch in the third quarter that would give them a lead they would rarely relinquish.
This applied to both the regular and postseasons; in the playoffs, the Warriors outscored their opponents in 17 of their 21 games by an aggregate total of 153 points, a number that widens out to 524 points when combined with their regular season stats. It reached the point where opponents knew it was likely coming; that sense of foreboding, of an inevitable turning of the screw, undercut any opponent's confidence as much as the run itself did.
The Warriors have also been noted throughout this run for what has alternately been named the 'Death Line-up' and the 'Hamptons Five'. This is simply a five-man unit of players - Curry, Durant, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala and Draymond Green - that has historically been so dominant on both ends of the court, fueled by the scoring prowess of the first three and the spectacular defensive flexibility of the other two, that it has spawned its own Wikipedia entry.
In the third quarter of last night's game, however, both were found wanting. The Rockets outscored the Warriors 29-15 in the third quarter, the third time in five games that they have beaten Golden State in that frame. They own the series aggregate, too, and the once-palpable fear of a Golden State run no longer seems to hold quite the same power.
Furthermore, in the playoffs thus far, the 'Death Line-up' has not been nearly as effective as it was at its peak. Among the 77 five-man line-ups league-wide that have played at least 15 minutes together in this postseason, the +1.7 net rating of the 'Hamptons Five' unit ranks only 37th best in net rating.
Indeed, among qualified Warriors units alone, it ranks only fifth out of seven. The top four all feature Kevon Looney, yet Looney has had reduced usage across the first four games of the Rockets series [the boost in minutes in game five was directly related to Durant's injury] given the theoretical bad match-up he faces against the Harden/Clint Capela pick-and-roll.
The 'Death Line-up' was supposed to be the unit that overcame all match-up disadvantages. Yet it has been relied upon so much by head coach Steve Kerr (who seemingly has only six available players he trusts any longer) that its protagonists are wearing down, and with it has gone the ruthless efficiency on both ends.
At one point, the Warriors led by 20 points, but via the aforementioned underwhelming third-quarter, the Rockets were able to pull it back to a tie game heading into the fourth quarter. In that fourth quarter, Golden State had the misfortune of Durant suffering the game-ending calf strain.
And they couldn't do it.
In Game 7 of last year's Western Conference Finals, the Warriors left the door similarly wide-open. Committing 16 turnovers, missing many makeable shots themselves and given up many clean looks to the Rockets, Golden State only won that game because of a spectacular shooting slump by the Rockets, who shot only 7-41 from three-point range, including a streak of 27 misses in a row.
Twice now, the Warriors have left the door open, only for the Rockets to run into the frame.
There were significant factors in play here. The Rockets' game plan inevitably involved the assumption that Durant would be there, and his absence negates that preparation. Chris Paul has distinctly lost a step and can now no longer create off the dribble like he once could.
This puts an extra burden on the already heavily-burdened James Harden, whose obvious fatigue was a big factor down the stretch and led to him walking the ball up in time-urgent late-game situations, as well as loafing on defense just as he did in the bad old days.
More than anything, though, the Rockets seem to lack that killer instinct. It is not the first time it has happened, and it seems as though it will cost them the chance to end the Warriors' Western dominance for the second year in a row.
On a night in which the relentless hope of Tottenham Hotspur saw them grind out a vital and hugely difficult away win through guts and second-efforts rather than any great tactics, Houston could not do the same.
To keep their season alive, they are going to have to somehow find the wherewithal to do so twice more. Based on the evidence of last night, it does not look possible.
Last night may have been now or never for the Rockets.
Game 6 takes place in Houston in the early hours of Saturday morning (2am) live on Sky Sports Arena.
