The Rockets Save Their Season By Winning Game 2

Don’t close the coffin just yet! If the story of Game 1 for the Rockets was that their supporting cast really let them down while they got a great night from their MVP, then tonight was the exact opposite. Not only did the Rockets supporting cast show up, they fucking dominated. On a night where Harden and Paul combine to go 15-38, the rockets blew the doors off the Warriors to even up this series at one a piece. That sound you here is the entire city of Houston all exhaling at once, because at least now they can go into Oakland with a little momentum, and know that they ARE capable of hanging with this team with their own style. That was the big dicussion after Game 1, if HOU was going to have to change how they played in order to compete in this series. Mike D’Antoni didn’t think so, and instead chose to ride with what got him to this point. The Rockets responded, scoring 127 points, finishing with 51/38% splits, 16 3PM, 27 FTA, and just 12 turnovers. They got back to playing their elite level defense holding the Warriors to just 9 3PM and 27.6% shooting while forcing 15 TOs that led to 15 Rockets points.

This looked like the Rockets team we saw for most of the year, where nearly half their shot attempts are from deep, Harden while he wasn’t efficient at all still put in 27 and Paul going on a little mini run in the third quarter really helped the Rockets hold serve against any potential Warriors run. When those two are getting the type of help they got in this game, whether it was the 19/4/6 from Trevor Ariza or the 22/7/4 on 8-9 shooting for PJ Tucker or the HUGE 27 points and 6 3PM from Eric Gordon on the bench, they become that unstoppable offensive force that had one of the most historic offensive seasons in NBA history. I think we can all agree their season is all but over if they lost this game, and it’s not everyday you see a team force GS to waive the white flag.

If you’re the Warriors, it’s honestly whatever for you. The goal was simply to split the first two, so in that regard it was a mission accomplished. You don’t love that Curry went 7-19 and couldn’t decide if he was hurt, but then he made a few shots so he wasn’t hurt, but now they got blown out so I’m almost positive he isn’t 100%. It also doesn’t help that as good as Klay was in Game 1, he was that bad in Game 2 going 3-11. Basically every single Warrior outside of Kevin Durant stunk up the joint, and even he had 5 TOs which isn’t great. Where the Warriors have to  be careful is all this win did was give HOU life. Had they won this series, you could have banked on the Rockets not even showing up in Oakland, but now, thankfully, we have ourselves a series.

I don’t want to say we are in must win territory yet, but Game 3 is going to be must watch that’s for sure.