This one will actually be fairly brief, as it’s very late for me. It almost got very late for the Rockets, too. Despite having a double digit lead in the 4th quarter, the Rockets almost (but didn’t!) lost it late. If you’ve ever seen most games where the Rockets play Golden State in San Francisco, with Steph Curry playing, you can be forgiven in the fourth quarter for thinking that you knew how this one would end.
Steph Curry would shoot a bunch of difficult three pointers late, make them, and the Rockets would be unable to match it. There would be gushing announcers, if a national game. (Check!) There would be some iffy calls. (Check!) There would be Draymond and his special, personal, set of rules. (Check!) There would be a Curry dagger to give the Warriors an improbable win. (Nope!)
I signed up for this recap with a healthy amount of trepidation, but no one can say that I am not a glutton for punishment. I wouldn’t have done that, though, if I realized that
A. Steph Curry would be returning from a long absence.
In retrospect, of course he would. He would definitely return at home, against the Rockets, if such a thing was even remotely possible.
B. It was Easter Sunday.
I did know it was Easter of course, but I hadn’t put the two together. That Rockets fans were being set up to endure some sort of “He Is Risen! The Holy Gnawer Himself! The Bay Area’s Lord and Savior!” story line. It was very close, but fortunately this reverse miracle didn’t quite occur.
What happened? Well, the Rockets had a fairly solid lead. Then they put in some weird lineups, and lost most of that lead to Warriors Randos. The the Warriors put in Steph Curry, the Rockets answered with still odder lineups, with even less shooting, but in theory (but not practice, as it didn’t get stops) more defense. Yeah, you’ve seen this movie before, right?
Well, not quite. The the Warriors took a 116-115 lead at 19.6 seconds remaining on a goaltend call on Amen Thompson that looked like it might not withstand a challenge. The Rockets didn’t have a challenge, so we will never know. The Rockets called a timeout.
You can be forgiven for dreading this sort of out of timeout situation, late, with the game on the line. You might have been expecting that the Rockets would force a dangerous inbounds pass to Kevin Durant in the center of the court, somewhere near mid court. You might foresee that he’d be immediately swarmed, and either throw a dangerous pass to a player who couldn’t get a shot off, and would then lob a grenade to someone else. That person would miss. That would be lost fourth quarter lead #18.
Friends, it didn’t happen. The Rockets ran a play. That’s the Easter Basketball Miracle. They ran a play. Durant did get the ball, but not on the inbounds, and not at midcourt. He dribbled along the sideline, while Alperen Sengun rambled down the lane towards the basket. Golden State, having lost Kristaps Porzingis to fouls, was playing very small by necessity. It had been working well for foiling the aforementioned strange lineups (a lot more Aaron Holiday and JaeSean Tate than seemed wise.) The 7ft Durant made an easy pass to the 6’11” Alperen Sengun over the Golden State defenders, for an easy finish. 117-116.
Sill there were a few seconds left, but Golden State was out of timeouts. If you’ve watched enough of these games, you have a healthy fear of what might come next. Curry makes a miracle heave, also falls down, just in case, and then does a little dance on the ground. Reggie Miller squeals in delight. Etc.
But no. It wasn’t a good look, there was no possible foul, and Curry just missed from 30ft. The game was over. The Narrative was defeated, somehow. The Rockets won.
There’s more to talk about on this one, but not at 2am for me. That was the defining moment of this game, despite an excellent game from Kevin Durant overall (late, painful turnovers aside), Jabari Smith, and very good games from Amen Thompson and Alperen Sengun.
Let’s take this win and be happy. It’s not what I expected, but it’s definitely what I hoped for when I signed up to write up this game.
PS – Jabari Smith had a very fine game, and was the player interview at the half. He wasn’t asked about his game, or his team. Nope. Jabari was asked to talk about what Steph Curry returning meant to him. I’m not kidding. This happened.
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