James Harden (right) of the Houston Rockets is tackled by the Golden State Warriors’ Festus Ezeli on Thursday. (Photo: AFP)
James Harden (right) of the Houston Rockets is tackled by the Golden State Warriors’ Festus Ezeli on Thursday. (Photo: AFP)
James Harden drained the game winner on a turnaround jumper with two seconds left as the Houston Rockets clipped the Stephen Curry-less Golden State Warriors 97-96 in a first-round NBA play-off contest.
Harden’s clutch basket Thursday allowed the Rockets to cut the Warriors series lead in the Western Conference tussle to two games to one.
The defending champion Warriors were playing without MVP guard Curry, who has an injured right ankle. The Warriors hope to have Curry back in the fold for game four Sunday at the Toyota Center arena.
The Rockets blew a 17-point lead and trailed with 10 seconds left when Trevor Ariza threw away an inbounds pass that resulted in a fastbreak layup by Warriors reserve guard Ian Clark.
That set the stage for Harden’s heroics. He followed with a quick dribble, drove the lane and spun free before nailing the short jump shot.
Golden State forward Draymond Green dribbled the ensuing inbounds pass off his foot and out of bounds for a turnover with one second left.
Harden finished with 35 points, eight rebounds and nine assists to pace five Rockets in double figure scoring. Donatas Motiejunas tallied 14 points and 13 rebounds, and Dwight Howard added 13 points and 13 rebounds but missed two key free throws with 3:07 left. Reserve forward Marreese Speights paced the Warriors with 22 points.
In the other Western Conference contest Thursday night, Kevin Durant scored a game-high 34 points, Russell Westbrook tallied 26 and the Oklahoma City Thunder cruised to a 131-102 first round playoff win over the Dallas Mavericks.
With the victory in front of a crowd of 20,100 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, the Thunder grabbed a 2-1 lead.
Wesley Matthews led the Mavericks with 22 points, Raymond Felton had 18 and Dirk Nowitzki finished with 16.
The Toronto Raptors also rolled to victory as Kyle Lowry finished with 21 points and eight assists and DeMar DeRozan added 21 points in a 101-85 victory over the host Indiana Pacers.
The Raptors lead the East series 2-1 and regained home-court advantage after dropping game one in Toronto.
