Subscribe
Follow Us
In spite of lots of talk surrounding refereeing and an absurd amount of discussion regarding a shooter's “landing zone,” the Houston Rockets and Golden State Warriors have played two very entertaining games to open their Western Conference semifinal.
Golden State defended their home court by taking both games at Oracle Arena, thanks in part to some incredibly stingy defense as well as invaluable offensive contributions from the likes of Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala.
The Rockets shot under 30 percent from deep in Game 1, and despite an improvement to 42 percent in Game 2, they committed 17 turnovers and failed to make the big shots down the stretch. The Warriors have hounded Chris Paula and James Harden at every turn, with Iguodala, in particular, proving to be excellent in switching out to guard Harden on screens.
Speaking to Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area, Iguodala iterated that the Warriors need to be relentless in applying defensive pressure and going out to win the series, rather than resting on their laurels.
“Our defense has been really good,” Iguodala said. “We’re still not perfect on defense. We’ve been good, though, considering how crafty they are. They made a lot of 3s and we still were able to control the game.
“The thing that I feel good about is that against this team, we won’t get comfortable. They’re confident and believe they’re going to go home and beat us twice.
“But there are more levels of us to reach. For sure. For sure.”
Meanwhile, the Warriors continue to win even though both Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson are dealing with ankle injuries (Curry also dislocated his finger in Tuesday night's win).
Kevin Durant has been superb as always, with Green and Iguodala elevating their play as well. After averaging just 5.7 points during the regular season, “Iggy” is averaging 15 points and shooting 75 percent from the field through the first two games of the series.
