West Conf. Finals - Game 6: Houston Rockets 86-115 Golden State Warriors - 5 Talking Points
Maybe not a 29-point win but when Chris Paul was limping at the end of Game 5, we all sort of expected the Golden State Warriors to win Game 6 and force a Game 7 back in Houston.
That's not to downplay their effort in Game 6. Nobody was going to give them the win without playing and they really had to earn it after they trailed not only after the first quarter (22-39) but even at halftime (51-61). Over the last two quarters of the game, they outscored the Rockets 64-25 with another huge third quarter (+17), something we didn't see in Game 5.
In the post-game press conference of Game 5, Steve Kerr said: "I'm extremely confident we'll take care of business [win Game 6 at home]."
Draymond Green said something along the same lines but in his own tone - " You’d be a fool not to believe me. If you don’t ever believe anything I say, believe this: We’re a group of champions.”
Although CP3 missing the game had a lot to do with it, both [Kerr and Green] come out looking really good as they walked the walk after talking the talk.
Here are 5 biggest talking points from Game 6:
A tale of two halves for the Warriors defense
In both their previous wins, the Warriors talked about being locked in on defense, and that being the biggest reason for the wins. In a must-win Game 6, a team of their caliber, you would expect the Dubs to be more clinical not just on defense but on both ends of the floor.
Unfortunately, Golden State came out missing assignments on defense, failing to communicate for switches and even looking at each after blown rotations on screens and so forth in the first half, especially in the first quarter.
The second half was another story altogether. Yes, the Warriors' shots started falling so that kept them in the game but their defense was huge as well, holding the Rockets to just 25 points in the second half.
They closed the airspace on the Rockets' shooters (Trevor Ariza, PJ Tucker, Eric Gordon, and James Harden), who had shot 11-of-22 (50%) on 3s in the first half and 8-of-12 (75%) in the first quarter). In the second half, Houston shot 4-of-17 from beyond the arc.
They contested each shot better and that eventually fueled their offense, which exploded for 93 points in the last three quarters after just 22 in the first period.