NBA Playoffs: Warriors vs. Rockets Game 3 recap, full highlights

The Rockets hung on against a Stephen Curry-less Warriors team to win Game 3

The Golden State Warriors once again elected to go at the Houston Rockets without their superstar point guard, Stephen Curry, as they took a 2-0 series lead on the road to the Toyota Center in Houston on Thursday night, trying to all but put James Harden and company away by winning their first three games of the 2016 NBA Playoffs. However, things started out much differently in Clutch City than they had in the first two games of the series.

With Harden on the attack and getting to the foul line early and often back on his home floor, the Rockets were able to jump out to a sizable lead on the defending champion Warriors. Though Houston was able to pull ahead in the early going, it was an unlikely cast of characters that was able to keep the Warriors at least semi-afloat as Marreese Speights provided huge minutes off of the bench for Golden State while the likes of Klay Thompson and Draymond Green struggled to find their game on the offensive end of the floor.

Though Houston once led by 17 points against the Curry-less Warriors, they saw that lead dissipate and only led by seven points going into halftime. Entering the fourth quarter, things got even more dicey for the Rockets as the Warriors began to lock down on the defensive end of the floor, started to send Dwight Howard to the free throw line, and saw an unlikely reserve guard in Ian Clark come up with several huge buckets in the final minutes.

After retaking the lead for the first time since being up 2-0, two Michael Beasley free throws put the Rockets up 95-94. Houston then had the chance to just inbound the ball and ice it with free throws, but instead turned the ball over to lead to a Clark lay-up to put the Warriors up by two. However, Harden didn’t care a bit as he charged down to the other end of the floor and hit a stepback jumper of his own to go back up by one.

That left one final possession for the Warriors—but they wasted it. They tried to get the ball into Draymond and the forward dribbled the ball off of his foot. That essentially finished the game to help the Rockets at least avoid the sweep and move the series to 2-1 in favor of Golden State.

Three Stars

James Harden, Rockets — 35 points, nine assists, eight rebounds, two steals

Marreese Speights, Warriors — 22 points, four rebounds (only 18 minutes on the floor)

Donatas Motiejunas, Rockets — 14 points, 12 rebounds, two steals, one block

Highlights

Next Game

Game 4 will again be in Houston between the Warriors and Rockets and that game will go down on Sunday afternoon.

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