Forecast: Rockets Vs. Warriors NBA Playoffs: Game 3

The Houston Rockets were not able to beat the Golden State Warriors even without Stephen Curry out of the lineup.

As I expected, Klay Thompson went out of his mind — partly because of the ref’s whistles were in his favor but that’s neither here or there — to drop 34 points on this team.

Some of the same issues that were present in Game 1, failure to adjust to the Warriors’ ball movement, lack of a direction on offense, Dwight Howard getting pouty about not getting ball were all a bad mix for another loss.

We can only hope that changes tonight, especially with them back here at home.

I just hope that the crowd will be enthused about the match up — I’ll be at Toyota Center tonight to root them on so we’ll see.

If there was any opportune moment to win a game in this series, it definitely would be now.

So who’s leading the charge for the Warriors?

More from House of Houston

Klay Thompson is the leading scorer (25.0 PPG) and Stephen Curry is the steals king (3.0 PPG). Draymond Green is the assist man (6.0 APG), top board-getter (12.0 RPG) and the premier shot-blocker (2.5 BPG).

Let’s talk about what the Warriors are doing well.

From a Rockets fan’s perspective, they’re doing everything right but let’s delve deeper into the numbers:

They’re still well-balanced sans Stephen Curry. The Warriors are still ranked 4th in offensive efficiency (scoring 108.3 points per 100 possessions) and defensive efficiency (allowing a stingy 89.3 points per 100 possessions) among the 16 teams still playing for something.

They’re kind of good at that “moving the ball around” thing. Although the Warriors are looking good doing it against us and lead the league in assist ratio for most of the way of the regular season, they’re ranked 3rd behind the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers. Currently 18.7 percent of their possessions end with an assist. Wow.

They’re certainly getting the second chance against the Rockets. The Warriors have elevated themselves to be ranked 3rd in offensive rebound rate (30.8), a problem that has continued to plague the Rockets in ensuring they get the rebound on the defensive end. It pains me to no end to see easily attainable, stray rebounds fall into the wrong hands. It’s mind-boggling to know how many opportunities were missed to score because we couldn’t get the rebound when needed.

Injuries:

Stephen Curry injured his ankle late in the first half of Game 1 as he seemed to have landed on it wrong while actually being heavily-defended by none other than Bev. He made two trips to the locker room as was available to play in the 2nd half but wasn’t used as the Warriors definitely had the game in hand. Curry didn’t play in Game 2 and the outlook for his appearance is Game 3 is quite dim. An MRI was done on his ankle and the results have came out negative so there’s not too much concern of his health moving forward. He is officially listed as QUESTIONABLE for tonight but I expect him to sit because our team unfortunately cannot take advantage of him being out of the lineup.

Sources: Chris Mannix of the Vertical, Marc J. Spears of ESPN.com and Monte Pool of CSN Bay Area

Next: A Blueprint On How Not To Get Swept By The Warriors

Five Things to Watch:

Who will start at forward opposite Trevor Ariza?
Will we see Bickerstaff unleash K.J. McDaniels?
Will there be any improvement on how the Rockets respond to the Warriors’ rotations?
Can the Rockets find a way to move the ball around to the open man quickly?
Will Stephen Curry play tonight?

Prediction:

113-104 in a Rockets’ loss.

The Rockets are back at home to take on the Warriors for Game 3 at Toyota Center.

Tip-off is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. CDT.

The game will be televised on TNT/ROOT Sports Southwest and broadcast on NewsRadio 740 AM (KTRH), Sirius 207/XM 86/SiriusXM 86 (Internet 890) and La Ranchera 850 AM (KEYH) in Spanish.

Go Rockets!

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