Kevin Durant’s 35 Carry Stephen Curry, Warriors to Win vs. James Harden, Rockets

The Golden State Warriors kicked off their second round of the NBA playoffs with a 104-100 home win over the Houston Rockets.

Kevin Durant scored 24 of his 35 points in the second half of Sunday’s win at Oracle Arena, while Stephen Curry helped out with 18 points, including a dagger in the final minute:

The Rockets had a chance to tie in the closing seconds but a James Harden miss effectively ended the game:

Harden finished with 35 points while Eric Gordon added 27, but it wasn’t enough to keep the Warriors from taking a 1-0 lead in the Western Conference semifinals.

Golden State has now won Game 1 in 11 straight series dating back to 2016.

This figures to be a competitive series after these two teams battled for seven games in last year’s conference finals, but the Warriors are off to a strong start after an opening win.

Draymond Green an X-Factor Once Again After Forgettable Regular Season

Throughout his career, Draymond Green built his reputation as an elite defender and a versatile offensive contributor who can sometimes help out on the scoreboard. He did very little of that during the regular season, posting the fewest win shares since his rookie year, per Basketball Reference.

The scoring was especially disappointing with an average of just 7.4 points per game and 28.5 percent shooting from three-point range. This weakened a dominant lineup by putting more pressure on Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson to carry the load.

Fortunately for Golden State, we saw the Draymond of old in Game 1.

The forward filled up the stat sheet with 14 points, nine assists and nine rebounds, although his impact went beyond the numbers:

Green was aggressive offensively, looking for his own shot while also finding teammates when they were open. On the defensive end, he brought the physicality and energy needed to win a series of this magnitude.

The regular season made it seem as though the three-time All-Star was on the downfall of his career and couldn’t be trusted to be an impact player. However, it now appears as though he was saving his best for the most important part of the year.

In the clinching Game 6 against the Los Angeles Clippers, Green had a triple-double with 16 points, 14 rebounds, 10 assists and four blocks. His performance has carried over into another strong showing against the Rockets.

If this continues, he will give the Warriors a greater margin for error in games where one of Curry, Thompson or Durant aren’t at their best.

Rockets Are Toast Without Better Play from James Harden’s Teammates

Even though James Harden has a chance to win MVP this season, this series will likely come down to the production from the rest of his supporting cast.

Harden shot just 9-of-28 from the field Sunday (4-of-16 from three-point range), so it obviously wasn’t his best game. Still, he once again found a way to remain productive on the offensive end with 35 points.

The key against the Warriors, however, is getting production from a lot of different sources to keep up on the scoreboard with one of the best offenses in history.

In Game 1, Eric Gordon (27 points) and Chris Paul (17 points and four assists) were key parts in remaining competitive before eventually suffering a loss.

Still, the rest of the rotation left a lot to be desired.

Starters Clint Capela and PJ Tucker are more valuable on the defensive end but were still disappointments with a combined four points and nine rebounds.

Though Nene provided some help off the bench, it wasn’t an overall great performance from the second unit.

This is the difference between a close defeat and a potentially series-changing road win.

As we saw last round, a deep rotation can cause the Warriors problems. Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell dominated off the bench for the Clippers while many different players took over offensively at different times in the series.

With Austin Rivers ruled out because of an illness, per Tim MacMahon of ESPN, the Rockets simply didn’t have enough weapons on the floor.

Houston has showed at times this year it doesn’t need a huge game from Harden to win. In Game 3 against the Utah Jazz, the All-Star shot just 3-of-20 from the field, but it didn’t matter because the Rockets had six players in double figures and made 15 threes.

If the team can find that type of balance around Harden, there will be an opening to pull off the upset and finally knock out the Warriors.

What’s Next?

Game 2 of the series will also be in Oakland on Tuesday at 10:30 p.m. ET as the Rockets try to avoid falling into an 0-2 hole.