This is what I saw from press row as the Houston Rockets hosted the Golden State Warriors.
The Houston Rockets hoped to enter their game with the Golden State Warriors within striking distance in the standings. After two straight losses to the Dallas Mavericks and the Minnesota Timberwolves, they found themselves on play-in-life support, trailing the Warriors by three in the standings but really four overall, with the Dubs holding the tiebreaker.
The Warriors have shown some of their old form lately, winning five straight games. Of course, Draymond Green had plenty to say leading up to the game as he mocked Tari Eason’s “Warriors come out to play” message he had on Instagram after the Rocket’s 11th straight win.
“Tomorrow will be an opportunity to end their season”
I think if you asked Rockets fans if they can’t make the playoffs in what is one thing you would wish for and I think most would say to beat the Warriors tomorrow night pic.twitter.com/107vSSNKaO— Lachard Binkley (@BinkleyHoops) April 3, 2024
The game was a must-win if the Rockets wanted to have any realistic chance of making the playoffs with only seven games left.
First Half
The Warriors started the scoring with an Andrew Wiggins dunk off the fastbreak. The Rockets’ first basket was a 10-foot runner in the lane by Dillon Brooks. After trading baskets early, I am sure Rockets fans started to have bad flashbacks as Curry nailed a three-pointer and made a circus layup. Then Klay Thompson nailed back-to-back three-pointers to push the lead to 13-4.
It didn’t get much better, as the Warriors kept pushing the pace, and the Rockets kept missing, which led to Ime Udoka calling his second timeout in the first six minutes. The Rockets slowly got back into the game as Curry and Thompson went to the bench, and Fred VanVleet made a couple of mid-range shots to help cut the lead down to 25-15.
Then Jalen Green decided to join the party, scoring seven straight points and reducing the Rockets’ lead to five. After a couple of Chris Paul three-pointers, the Rockets trailed 33-24 after the first quarter.
Thompson started the second quarter like he finished the first, which was on fire. He scored seven points in the first three minutes to push the Warriors’ lead back to double digits. The Rockets, however, kept the game close as Jabari Smith started to heat up. Smith scored 10 points to start the second quarter and helped the Rockets get within 48-43.
That is the closest the Rockets would get for the rest of the half as the Warriors finished on a 17-7 run and took a 65-50 lead into the half.
Second half
The second half played out the same way as the first half. The Rockets couldn’t get stops when needed and continued to trail by almost 20 points the entire third quarter. The teams traded baskets for most of the third quarter. Still, the Rockets were able to mount a small run at the end of the quarter to cut the Warriors lead down to 16, but they could have been even closer if not for surrendering another buzzer-beating basket by the Warriors.
The fourth quarter was, for the most part, garbage time, as the Rockets never mounted any type of comeback. The Warriors, like every other quarter, scored over 30 points and cruised to an easy victory over the Rockets. The Warriors made it a point to mock Tari Eason’s Instagram post, in which he said Warriors come out to play, which is a reference to the 1979 classic movie “Warriors”.
Steph was trolling the Rockets in tonight’s W
Referencing the infamous scene from the movie “The Warriors” that Tari Eason quoted pic.twitter.com/qaNI4V7oJ5
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 5, 2024
You could even hear the Warriors coming down the hall to the visitor locker room, yelling “Warriors, come out to play.” It was a bad night for the Rockets, who were outplayed and bullied most of the game. The Rockets lost their third straight 133-110 and are now on the brink of play in elimination.
Post-game
After the game, Coach Udoka was not happy. He talked about how the Warriors bullied the Rockets and how his team played soft.
Coach Udoka talked about how the Rockets were bullied tonight . He was asked why it seemed the Rockets couldn’t get there footing tonight.
“It looked like the moment was a too big for alot of players out there” pic.twitter.com/Xn3m8oZ4VF— Lachard Binkley (@BinkleyHoops) April 5, 2024
This echoed what he said a few months ago after a loss to the Lakers, and Coach Udoka also stated that the moment seemed too big for some of his players. The Warriors were able to do whatever they wanted on the court, Something Rockets fans sadly have seen for a decade now. The Rockets will be back in action Friday night as they welcome the Miami Heat to the Toyota Center.
For the full post-game interviews, check out the YouTube page of the Rocket Fuel Podcast.