Rockets Beat the Warriors 115-108 at Toyota Center: Durant Scores 20, Sengun Posts 19, 13 and 9, and Golden State Never Leads
Houston ran out to a 35-20 first quarter, gave most of it back, and closed the door anyway - a wire-to-wire win over an 8-3 Golden State team that had won eight straight, on a night Stephen Curry played only 5:35 and scored three points.
The Houston Rockets did the two hardest things in the same game on Wednesday night: they built the lead early and they finished. Houston beat the Golden State Warriors 115-108 at Toyota Center, leading from the first quarter to the final buzzer - Golden State's biggest lead all night was zero - in a game-night final between two teams that came in at 8-3. Kevin Durant led a balanced Houston attack with 20 points, and Alperen Sengun, again the Rockets' only traditional center with Steven Adams and Clint Capela out, finished an assist short of a triple-double: 19 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists.
The first quarter was the statement. Houston outscored Golden State 35-20, pushed its lead to 18 at its largest and made the Warriors chase the game from then on. Golden State's best stretch answered immediately - a 31-21 second quarter behind Yaxel Lendeborg, who finished with a game-high 25 points and 10 rebounds, and Brandin Podziemski, who scored 22 - but the Warriors never got in front. The second half tightened to 29-28 and 30-29 quarters, and Houston's margin in the game's decisive places held: 50 points in the paint to Golden State's 34, and 19 fast-break points to seven. Houston shot 50.6 percent from the field; Golden State shot 40.9.
The strangest line of the night belonged to Stephen Curry. The Warriors' star started, played 5 minutes 35 seconds, scored three points on 1-of-3 shooting and did not figure in the rest of the game; the official file gives no reason, and this desk reports the line as it stands rather than guessing at one. Golden State was already thin - Jimmy Butler III, Kristaps Porzingis, Gary Payton II, Moses Moody and Brandon Williams were all inactive - and Houston's depth told: Amen Thompson scored 19, Fred VanVleet 18 with four 3-pointers, Jabari Smith Jr. 14 with eight rebounds and three blocks, and Reed Sheppard 13 off the bench. LJ Cryer, the former Houston Cougar, scored 13 for the Warriors in his homecoming.
The win moves Houston to 9-3 and snaps the eight-game winning streak Golden State brought into the building. It also completes the arc the desk set on Tuesday, when the preview ran twice and the game-night final was promised for the late cycle: Durant, playing against the franchise he won two titles with, did not need a takeover night - Houston had six players in double figures and Sengun conducting from the middle. Wire-to-wire wins over a streaking rival are the kind that travel; the Rockets' next test is whether the small-ball center rotation that survived this one keeps holding while Adams and Capela are out.
