Golden State Warriors star Kevin Durant has been on an incredible scoring run lately, potentially comparable only to Michael Jordan, according to his coach.

While Steve Kerr joked about Durant being like his former Chicago Bulls teammate, he was genuine about describing the forward’s success and ability, via Nick Friedell of ESPN.com:

“Kevin’s run this past week has just been off the charts. I’ve said it a few times this week: He’s the most skilled basketball player on Earth. He’s one of the most skilled basketball players to ever play the game. There’s never been anybody like him. Six-[foot]-11, handles the ball, shoots 3s, passes, defends. He’s just an unbelievable talent. And I think after we lost Game 2 to the Clippers, I think he just felt like he had to turn it up and lift us up another level. That’s exactly what he’s done.”

In the Game 2 loss Kerr described, Durant had 21 points but ended up with nine turnovers and only took eight shots from the field. Since then, he has been on a tear with at least 30 points in all five games with an average of 40.2 per game.

He scored 50 points on an efficient 15-of-26 in the clinching Game 6 win over the Los Angeles Clippers.

Durant continued his impressive run Sunday with 35 points in the 104-100 Game 1 victory over the Houston Rockets. Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were quiet for much of the day, but Durant took over and carried the team to a win.

Durant is averaging 29.1 points per game in his playoff career with two titles and two Finals MVPs. Unfortunately, he has a long way to go to catch Jordan, who averaged 33.4 points per game on his way to six titles and six Finals MVPs.

The shot clock was already off. With fewer than 24 seconds to play, the Golden State Warriors led the Houston Rockets 103-100 in Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals.

The typical play would be to intentionally foul, especially after the San Antonio Spurs‘ late-game snafu the night before. But Chris Paul played for the steal and got one. James Harden proceeded to launch a three on the ensuing possession. He fell on the landing. No foul was called.

Before the final buzzer, Paul was called for his second technical of the night. He was ejected, and the Warriors won 104-100.

The Rockets’ frustrations were on the verge of boiling over for most of the game, and they finally did at the end. The conversation between ESPN’s Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson immediately following the final no-call was a topic throughout.

“What is a landing zone?”

It was a hot topic on Twitter as well.

Sam Vecenie of The Athletic thought the Rockets’ complaints were justified:

As did FiveThirtyEight’s Chris Herring:

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban went the other way:

NBA players Rudy Gobert and Spencer Dinwiddie chimed in as well:

And that’s just a small sampling of the conversation. It was all over the timeline throughout and after the game.

On several occasions, a Golden State defender wound up under the feet of a Rockets shooter without being called for a foul.

ESPN’s broadcast even asked officiating expert Steve Javie for an explanation of what exactly the landing zone is. He agreed with Breen, Van Gundy and Jackson.

By the letter of the law, a defender getting into that landing zone is a foul.

“Defenders may not move into the landing area of an airborne shooter,” the league’s video rulebook explains. “… This is a defensive foul as the airborne shooter must be allowed to return to the floor safely.”

But what happens if the shooter kicks his feet out, essentially moving that landing zone into the defender? What happens if the defender and the shooter are both jumping forward instead of straight up and down?

It seems like this is the gray area where much of Game 1 was played, as explained by Michael Wallace of Grizzlies.com:

“We could have easily gone to the line another 20 times during the game,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni told reporters following the game. “So we’re OK.”

According to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, the officials even agreed with D’Antoni on some of the calls:

And that may be true. You can be sure that this being the conversation following Game 1 is not ideal from the league’s perspective. New York would most likely rather have fans and media talking about the game. There’s a reason coaches and players are often fined for publicly criticizing officials. So an emphasis on these “landing zone” fouls in Game 2 shouldn’t surprise anyone.

The balancing act for the NBA, of course, is to avoid going too far in the other direction. If Harden gets a parade of free throws from these plays in Game 2, the conversation will only be stoked further.

And if the officials continue to call the action the way they did Sunday—which shouldn’t be out of the question, given the gray zone that’s been created—the Rockets could be in trouble.

Harden is one of the most gifted scorers in the history of basketball. But one of his skills—drawing fouls—is naturally reliant on outside forces: the refs.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr referred to Harden’s ability to draw fouls as “crafty” after the game. He still took 14 free throws on Sunday. But he clearly wanted more. And if some of those “landing zone” fouls had been called, he may not have been over 10 points shy of his regular-season true shooting percentage.

What Harden and the rest of the Rockets may have to do is simply adapt. We’ve all heard the cliche plenty of times. The game is called differently in the playoffs.

Over the last two seasons, Harden’s free-throw rate of .472 trails only those of Rudy Gobert, DeAndre Jordan, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid (minimum 1,000 field-goal attempts). Over the same span in the playoffs, Harden’s free-throw rate of .340 trails those of 17 players (minimum 100 attempts).

What may have been a near-surefire foul in the regular season often goes ignored in the postseason. The rulebook doesn’t change, but its practical application does.

So how exactly can the Rockets adapt? That’s easier said than done against a locked-in Warriors team that boasts as much talent as any dynasty in NBA history. But maybe slightly less reliance on the isolation is in order.

Over the last two regular seasons, Harden scored 1.15 points per isolation. The No. 1 offense in the league in each of the last two seasons scored fewer than 1.15 points per possession. But over the last two postseasons, Harden is scoring 0.98 points per iso. That’s a monumental drop-off. No team in the last two seasons scored fewer than one point per possession.

Golden State is loaded with top-tier isolation defenders. Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Draymond Green and Kevin Durant can all make perimeter play more difficult than Harden’s used to. The key may be forcing them to move more. Get them rotating, switching, etc. Few defenders can handle Harden’s 20-second isos, but the Warriors have players who occasionally can. That’s more than most teams can say.

And if even an occasional departure from the usual onslaught of isolations generates a few more looks without Warriors nearby, Houston may find itself at the mercy of the officials less often.

Now, this could be an overreaction. Again, Harden is one of the best scorers we’ve ever seen. And a breakout may be right around the corner. But if the Rockets don’t make any adjustments, they risk having a short series highlighted more by arguments with the officials than four-point plays.

*Unless otherwise stated, all advanced statistics are courtesy of NBA.com/stats.

Not only was the officiating a big story following the Golden State Warriors‘ 104-100 win over the Houston Rockets on Sunday, the referees apparently admitted to missing calls at halftime.

This is how Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni explained it after the game:

Houston did go to the free-throw line 29 times during the game, with James Harden shooting 13-of-14 on his own. However, an additional 12 attempts from the charity stripe could have made a significant difference in a four-point loss.

The main argument from the Rockets perspective was that the Warriors defenders seemed to undercut shooters before landing.

Klay Thompson specifically had a few instances of jumping into Harden after a shot:

Chris Paul also wanted a foul after this made three-pointer:

Paul was eventually thrown out of the game in the final seconds for arguing with an official.

Houston relies on getting to the line, ranking third in the NBA with 19.3 made free throws per game. The squad could struggle offensively without these calls, especially when the team shoots just 29.8 percent from three-point range like it did in Game 1.

If the officials genuinely made a mistake like D’Antoni said, perhaps they could get the calls more often going forward in this series.

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.