Houston Rockets vs. Golden State Warriors Game 2 preview

The Rockets look to bounce back and even the series with the Warriors

I think there are two ways to look at Game 1.

The first is the “doom and gloom” approach. In this version, you would say that the Golden State Warriors own the Houston Rockets. The faces may change, but the results stay the same. When the going gets tough, the Warriors get tougher and the Rockets fold. Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson Jimmy Butler III have experience and two of them can take over games late on offense.

Even in this version of events, the Rockets aren’t “done.” Well, maybe they are for this series, but they can still retool around their core. This offseason, they should let Fred VanVleet walk and try to turn Jalen Green into an alpha superstar to pair with Alperen Sengun.

There’s another way to look at Game 1, though.

In this interpretation, the Warriors still have the edge thanks to experience. That doesn’t change and it won’t this season or anytime during the next three. But this time, we can talk about all the things that went poorly for Houston.

• Houston went 6/29 from deep. Many of those were good looks that didn’t fall.
• Houston went 11/20 from the free throw line.
• Houston committed 17 turnovers. Most were live ball cough ups that led to easy points for the Warriors.
• Fred VanVleet went 4/19. Jalen Green went 3/15.
• Amen Thompson had the worst +/- on the team (-16).
• Houston missed so…many…bunnies.
• Curry hit three miracle threes.
• Houston grabbed 22 offensive rebounds but only scored 22 second-chance points. That’s 1 pt/OReb. For comparison the Warriors grabbed 6 offensive boards and scored 12 points off them (2 pts/OReb).
• Alperen Sengun was the best Rocket by a long shot. He had five turnovers.
• Jabari Smith Jr. went 3/3 and was a big part of the almost-comeback. He had four turnovers.
• Dillon Brooks was basically invisible.
• Tari Eason went 3/10, including some wide open threes and bunnies.

Yes, the game could have been worse. Golden State could have gotten more free throws or made even more threes. But that’s a lot of things that went against the Rockets. If just a few of these factors shift in Houston’s favor, this is a close game throughout. That second quarter will haunt the team unless they get back into this series.

So, which version is right? We’ll find out tonight. For some reason, Vegas has some faith in Houston as they opened as 3.5-point favorites. That line has gone down, and frankly getting points for the Warriors seems pretty tasty.

We’ll be in the Playback room tonight, so you should come join to watch the Rockets and talk about the game. Remember, we get a handful of VIP passes that we give out to anyone who wants to watch the game. No League Pass necessary!

Tip-off

8:30pm CT

How To Watch

TNT, Space City Home Network, and Playback

Injury Report

Rockets

Jae’Sean Tate: GTD

Warriors

None

The Line (as of this post)

HOU -1.5

Check here for updates

Looking ahead because we can

Game 3 in San Francisco on Saturday