After three consecutive wins over the Golden State Warriors, another good game from Jeremy Lin against his former team and an OK one from James Harden didn’t really help the Houston Rockets, who didn’t get anything from anyone else, while the sharpshooting duo of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson couldn’t miss a shot.

They beat us three times, they embarrassed us one game, killing the 3-point line and they’re a half-game back and had an opportunity to jump us in the standings. And the fact that, yeah, we haven’t been playing well on the road. All those factors kind of built into this being a huge win for us.

The Warriors didn’t just beat the Rockets, fighting directly with them for a higher position in the Western playoffs, but they annihilated them at the Toyota Center, 108-78. Defense has been something of an inconsistent word for Golden State this season, but it was certainly there, along with some bad shooting from the Rockets, in the win, keeping the Rockets on season-low point totals in the first quarter (10) and first half (31).

Curry, who didn’t get a second to rest, finished the game with 29 points and 11 assists, including 5-11 from beyond the arc, as Golden State went 50% from three point range. Klay Thompson was just as effective with the long ball, scoring 26 points, enjoying a 6-9 day from the outside. Both of them played more than 42 minutes, as the Warriors used a small lineup for long stretches, Jarrett Jack joining the two sharpshooters.

That was a sorry sight to see out there. It was really hard to watch. I’ve never seen us shoot like that before. It was terrible. We came out so flat. We didn’t play with any energy.

The Rockets have the best offense and three  point shooting team in the NBA on most nights, especially on their home court. While Jeremy Lin, who sees red when he plays against the Warriors, finished with 21 points on a good 9-16 shooting night from him, aided by James Harden on 21 points of his own (6-16), the rest of the team shot 24.1% from the field when omitting the game Lin and Harden were having.

Carlos Delfino was the only other player in double figures with 12 points, but he had a bad shooting night as well. Chandler Parsons and Donatas Motiejunas had a terrible game, combining for 4-24 from the field, while Omer Asik found life in the paint facing both David Lee and Andrew Bogut very difficult.

Obviously, tonight was bad in every which way that you want to look at it.

With the loss, the Warriors now open a 1.5 game lead over the Rockets for the sixth place in the Western conference, while Houston are now only 0.5 games above the red hot Los Angeles Lakers, as it seems more and more likely that the final game between the two teams on the final day of the season might decide one or two things with playoff implications. If the Rockets don’t wake up from their horrific, flat, lazy and tired performance of all but two players, than the postseason, which looked so certain of being part of their season might slip away.

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