With a shiny NBA Cup court as the backdrop, the Houston Rockets get their first shot at revenge against last year’s playoff antagonist when they visit the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night in San Francisco.
There will be no Kevin Durant, Fred VanVleet, Al Horford and possibly Draymond Green when the Rockets (11-4) and Warriors (10-9) — currently tied for last place in West Group C with 1-2 records — duel in what likely will be their Cup finale as the game almost surely will have no bearing on which team or teams from the quintet will advance.
When last seen in San Francisco, the Rockets rode 29 points from VanVleet and a combined 38 points and 19 rebounds from big men Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams to a 115-107 win in Game 6 of the Western Conference first round, a triumph that tied the best-of-seven and sent the teams back to Houston for a decisive contest.
Getting nine 3-pointers and 33 points from Buddy Hield, the underdog Warriors, seeded seventh, captured Game 7 103-89 to earn a shot at the Minnesota Timberwolves in Round 2 while the second-seeded Rockets were eliminated.
Both teams stamped themselves ready for the Cup’s bright lights with runaway wins Monday. Amen Thompson’s 28 points propelled Houston to a 114-92 romp at Phoenix, while Stephen Curry’s 31 pushed Golden State past the visiting Utah Jazz 134-117.
The Rockets got a trial run for their Durant-less look when they outscored the Suns 18-4 on fast breaks and 54-30 in the paint in Monday’s win. Thompson, a guard who has attempted almost six times as many two-pointers (185) as 3-pointers (33) this season, led the charge on a night when he attempted just one shot outside the arc.
“KD wasn’t out there (due to personal reasons), one of our best scorers,” Thompson, who grew up just south of Oakland, reminded the media afterward, “so I was trying to push the pace a little bit more, get my shots a little bit more.”
Thompson was also the driving force in the Rockets limiting Suns star Devin Booker to 18 points on 5-for-13 shooting. The defensive whiz helped Houston hold Curry under 40% on his trademark 3-pointers (39.2%) in last year’s playoff series.
Hield came to his star teammate’s rescue in Game 7 and warmed up for the rematch with one of his best efforts of the new season, shooting 4-for-8 from deep on a 20-point night against the Jazz. Curry shot 6-for-17 on 3-pointers in the win.
Hield had gone just 4-for-17 from beyond the arc in the Warriors’ previous three games, all of which Golden State lost.
“It’s great to see some going down, but it’s gonna be a rough season, just up and down, trying to figure it out,” Hield admitted to reporters after the game. “Hopefully I can build up this one, and then build up the next one, and take one at a time. Just trying to figure it out. This is life. We all go through our ups and downs.”
While Durant, VanVleet, Horford and Jonathan Kuminga all have already been ruled out of Wednesday’s game, Green remains a question mark with a bruised right foot, the result of having gotten stepped on by Portland’s 280-pound center Donovan Clingan on Friday. Green sat out the Utah game.
