NBA Matchups: May 2

Houston Rockets at Golden State Warriors

Team Totals: Rockets 99.5, Warriors 104

Injury Report: Jock Landale (P, knee), Jae’Sean Tate (O, ankle), Jimmy Butler (Q, butt)

Warriors projected starters: Stephen Curry, Brandin Podziemski, Buddy Hield, Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green

Rockets projected starters: Fred VanVleet, Jalen Green, Amen Thompson, Dillon Brooks, Alperen Sengun

Udoka quotes: Said it was “all of the above” to get the big lead early, said Amen is “the head of the snake” on Curry, said they did a great job on Curry besides the second quarter, said they have been able to take the Warriors out of their stuff, said FVV has it going now after the bad start to the series, said he wouldn’t respond to the Warriors’ broadcast saying that the Rockets are swiping at Steph’s hand, said they turned it over too much in the second half to let the Warriors back in it, said FVV has “a nice pep in his step right now”, said Amen is getting downhill and he’s been effective in the dunker.

Kerr quotes: Said he didn’t have his guys ready to play, said he talked to Draymond and the starters about giving them just five minutes to get back in the game, said he never really considered bringing starters back in and it wasn’t the right thing to do, said it’s idiotic that guys can hit a hand after a shot is released (said Rockets are hitting Steph’s hand), said it’s tough to gauge how Jimmy is moving but he’ll be ready to go for Friday, said the Rockets had the same zone and they just couldn’t crack it.

Stats and Notes:

*The Rockets responded in a big way, as they ran the Warriors off the court in the first half 76-49. In the first half, the Rockets absolutely killed the Warriors in the paint at 14-of-18 shooting, while the Warriors went just 6-of-11 in the paint. The Rockets actually lost the rebounding battle in the first half with just one offensive rebound (Amen Thompson). In the first half, Golden State couldn’t get easy offense with just four shots between 18-24 on the shot clock, and part of that was the Rockets keeping their live-ball turnovers down (six total in the first half). Houston also made their shots to help them get a huge lead thanks to 9-of-15 from the field. They did run extremely hot overall with just seven wide-open 3PAs in the first half, making five of those. More importantly, they made 17-of-20 from the line after their free-throw woes may have cost them two games in this series. The Rockets have been pretty sharp with their defensive coverages for four of the five games, and they could have a shot to win this one if they can execute and make free throws.

*Alperen Sengun almost had a triple-double with 15/9/9 in 31 minutes against the Warriors on Wednesday. He did run extremely hot on passing at nine potential assists (four layups/dunks, four treys, and one two-point jumper). Sengun’s touches did get cut per minute in Game 5 and he only had two paint touches. Part of that was because the Rockets were flamethrowing, and he also had some foul trouble early. The Warriors are likely going to go back to their Game 4 game plan where they really funneled offense through Sengun, so I’d expect another big opportunity for him here.