The Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets played a runaway rollercoaster of an NBA playoff game Thursday night, trading sizable leads and treating us to an epic back-and-forth between MVP Stephen Curry and his runner-up James Harden. It wouldn’t be decided until just before time expired, when Curry knocked the ball out of Harden’s hands to snuff a furious Houston comeback and give the Warriors a 99-98 win in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals. The Warriors now lead the series 2-0.
This game proved the unwritten NBA playoff adage that ‘Nothing matters until the last two minutes’. The Warriors led by 17 midway through the second quarter. The Rockets tied the game at halftime, then led by six early in the third quarter. Golden State appeared to put it away with a 8-point lead with under three minutes left, then squandered it again when Houston had the ball and a chance to win with 8.8 seconds left.
This game had more mood swings than Kanye West at a Grammy ceremony where Beyoncé wins only half of the awards. Harden, who blew the Rockets’ chances when Curry and Klay Thompson double-teamed him to force the game’s decisive turnover, was so disappointed in himself that he knocked over arena scenery as he skulked back to the locker room after the game.
The Warriors franchise has never been up 2-0 in a Western Conference Finals until now, so do revel in the historical significance of this. But then remind yourself that these same Houston Rockets overcame a two-game deficit in their previous series against the Clippers, being down 3-1 and then rattling off three straight wins. Golden State has won both games in the comfortable, eardrum-shattering environs of the Roaracle Arena, and the series now heads to Houston for Game 3 on Saturday night (6 p.m., ESPN).
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