JEFF ALLEN GAME PREVIEW: HOUSTON at GOLDEN STATE GAME II
Like all four Game I’s of the Western Conference quarters, Houston/Golden State I was a laugher to the Warriors
but not without a price. Steph Curry turned an ankle in the second quarter and didn’t return in the second half with
Golden State in complete control. Still, the soon-to-be 2X MVP scored 24 points on the first 24 minutes and is listed
as questionable at the writing. The line at this writing is identical to Game I with Golden State -13 but the total has
crashed from Saturday’s 224.5 to tonight’s 218. It will be interesting to see what adjustments are made as the status
of Curry becomes clearer.
While it was likely that the Rockets would not win a game in Oakland barring an absolute perfect storm, you had to
figure that the team would at least try to compete. The Rockets were down 33-15 at the quarter and 60-33 at the half.
shooting 36% from the field (with many of the makes during garbage time), 12-24 from the foul line and hitting on
just 6-22 from behind the arc. James Harden did not get to the foul line once and the game was decided in the first
five minutes. Golden State played far from it’s best game of the season, especially on the offensive end and seemingly
losing interest in scoring just 44 points in the second half. The Warriors certainly did play good defense in the opening
24 minutes and we would expect the same here.
Going on the premise that Golden State will win, the only question is whether or not they will win the way that we keep
score. There is no doubt that the Warriors can cover this number if Curry did not play, Golden State would still have the
fire power to drop 120 on the below average defensively Rockets at any time. Will the Rockets come to play ??? That’s
the question. Golden State has beaten them 10 of the last 11 meetings and are 6-0 SU and ATS over the L6 game played
on this floor. The Rockets figure to score more than the 78 points they did in Game I and might even be desperate enough
to turn this into a horse race and hope they catch fire shooting. There are far to many “what ifs, “they might” and “shouldas”
for us to get involved in this one and we’ll pass hoping to find a better spot in this very long playoff season.