Rockets at Warriors
The Golden State Warriors are getting into the habit of falling into large holes only to fight their way back and make things interesting. The Warriors will look to avoid a big early deficit when they host the Houston Rockets on Friday. Golden State needed 16 fourth-quarter points, including a jumper with 1.5 seconds left, from Stephen Curry to avoid a loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday and is attempting to string together back-to-back home wins for the first time in nearly a month.
The Rockets embarrassed the Warriors 105-83 in Houston last Friday, building up a 31-12 lead after the first quarter. Golden State trailed by 18 points in the second quarter Wednesday and didn’t make it all the back until late in the fourth, a trend that coach Mark Jackson seems to be of two minds about. “It talks about our character and makes a statement,” Jackson said. “More of a statement than we could ever make with our mouths. We are not happy about being in these situations, but at the end of the day we are a team with plenty of fight and high character. We are not going to quit even when we dig ourselves a hole.”
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN, CSN Houston, CSN Bay Area (Golden State)
ABOUT THE ROCKETS (15-8): Houston is enduring the second night of a back-to-back after dropping a 111-104 decision at the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday. Dwight Howard collected 32 points and 17 rebounds in the setback and is averaging 18.8 boards in the last four contests. The second game of that string was the win over the Warriors on Dec. 6, when Howard went for 22 points and 18 boards while James Harden scored 34 points.
ABOUT THE WARRIORS (13-10): One of the heroes of Wednesday’s comeback was reserve forward Draymond Green, who hit a key 3-pointer in the fourth quarter and played strong defense to help drag Golden State back into the game in the second half. But even Green expressed disappointment in the early struggles. “We have to stop,” Green said. “We can’t continue to get behind like that and continue to try to come back and win…Yeah, we did play hard, but let’s play hard and beat a team by 15 or 20 points; let’s not play lackadaisical and get down 15 or 20 points.” The players and Jackson all credited the home crowd for extra energy after a stretch of seven of eight on the road, and the Warriors are 7-2 in their own building.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Warriors C Jermaine O’Neal (wrist) missed Wednesday’s game and is questionable for Friday.
2. Houston has taken five of the last six in the series.
3. Curry is averaging 32.7 points and 11.3 assists in the last three games.