The Houston Rockets tore their group all the way down to the bottom, went via a full rebuild, and turned themselves again right into a contender in comparatively quick order. Their reward for that fast turnaround: A primary-round matchup towards Stephen Curry of their first journey again to the playoffs because the 2019-20 season.
Curry and the Golden State Warriors didn’t give them a really nice welcome again to postseason basketball, and as an alternative delivered a reasonably sturdy message that they will nonetheless come via within the clutch and be an issue come playoff time.
The Warriors held off a late Rockets rally to choose up a 95-85 Sport 1 win on Sunday, highlighted by one other monster playoff efficiency from Curry.
It was not simply the truth that he scored a game-high 31 factors and was 5-of-9 from three-point vary.
It was the very fact a number of the pictures he hit had been completely crushing, demoralizing pictures for the Rockets. The kind of pictures that simply defy all sound purpose and logic.
The primary of these got here within the third quarter to increase Golden State’s result in 23 factors.