James Harden says Houston remains a “very confident bunch” heading Game 2 tonight against the Warriors.
The Rockets had “plenty of opportunities to make shots,” but simply failed to convert, according to the reigning MVP.
Chris Paul was slapped with a $35K fine by the NBA for “for aggressively confronting and recklessly making contact with a game official” during the Warriors’ 104-100 Game 1 victory.
The “pity party,” as coach Mike D’Antoni described his complaints about officiating, was over — or at least interrupted. The video that was studied focused on basketball players, rather than the officials who so vexed them the day before.
“We know how potent they are,” D’Antoni said. “They’re great. But if we hold them to the low 100s, 90s, we should be able to score that much. We have to add more pace to our game. We have to get out of that third and fourth quadrants (of the 24-second clock), and we’ve got to attack more. We’ve got to offensively rebound better. There’s hustle areas we have to do a better job.”
The Rockets put up 35 open or wide-open 3-pointers, making 12. Their 34 percent shooting on shots from beyond the arc with the nearest defender at least four feet away was not terrible, but it was not good enough to sustain a run in the second half or ever build a lead beyond four points, with that largest lead lasting only 32 seconds.
“We had plenty of opportunities to make shots, and we didn’t,” guard James Harden said. “We didn’t capitalize on them. Our defense, for the most part, was pretty good. We gave them a couple easy layups and slips and all that good stuff. We just have to keep that same effort and a little bit better for Game 2.”
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