Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Elizabeth Conley/Staff Photographer
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
SAN FRANCISCO — The Houston Rockets are fueled by antagonism. Attempts to bully or bait them often unintentionally light a fuse.
No team has gotten under the Rockets’ skin more in recent years than the Golden State Warriors. Stephen Curry and Draymond Green tormented the Rockets year after year in the Western Conference playoffs, and that reputation has carried through Houston’s rebuild and now to the other side.
The Rockets entered Sunday’s game as the No. 2 team in the West, three spots ahead of the Warriors. But no matter what the standings said, history designated the Rockets as underdogs in the Bay Area, where they had lost their last seven consecutive games.
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Sunday’s game at Chase Center was simultaneously a flashback and a potential playoff preview. Green revved up the crowd by jawing back and forth with Rockets wing Dillon Brooks and tangling with Rockets center Alperen Şengün.
But Green also succeeded in revving up the Rockets, who put the clamps on Curry and beat the Warriors 106-96 behind 43 combined points from Brooks and Şengün.
Green committed back-to-back fouls on Brooks and Şengün just before the end of the first half and received a technical foul after shoving Şengün and arguing with the official. Two minutes into the second half, Green was called for a flagrant foul after hitting Şengün in the head — the Warriors star’s fifth personal foul.
“I think that was the moment we won the game,” Şengün said of the first-half tussle. “Because everybody got heated up and we responded well. And, you know, I think they were trying to scare us to play softer but even then you just play harder after that. And, proud of my team.”
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Green, asked about the fouls against Şengün, seemed to disagree with both calls.
“The flagrant call, I don’t know what to do. Go duck, don’t go for the layup?” he said. “The tech, I’m not going to stop, because the referee say stop and give up my position. I already give up six inches and 50 pounds. So it is what it is.”
Green’s defense is one of the Warriors’ primary weapons. The other is the greatest shooter in the game.
Curry had totaled 125 points over his last three games. Against the Rockets, he scored just three points on 1-of-10 shooting with second-year guard Amen Thompson as his primary defender.
“He had been on a heater lately, and so we wanted to obviously pay him a little bit more attention,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “And when you got a special guy like Amen Thompson doing what he does, that’s the result.”
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Thompson grew up in the Bay Area city of San Leandro, less than a 10-minute drive to the Warriors’ former arena in Oakland and about 25 minutes from their new home in San Francisco. Although LeBron James was his favorite player, he attended Warriors basketball camps and Curry’s basketball camps as a kid and rooted for the Warriors in the playoffs.
“It was extra motivation trying to get a win up here,” Thompson said.
On Sunday, his older brother and grandparents were in the stands to see Thompson neutralize the player he grew up watching.
“That’s why he’s out there for 30-plus minutes a night, because that’s how he helps them win,” Curry said. “He’s kind of relentless, he’s a supreme athlete, and has found his lane, again, on how he can be impactful. So you tip your hat to him, and he’s gotten a lot better every time you face him.”
Thompson also scored 14 points and had a team-high six assists; the Rockets outscored the Warriors by 26 points when he was on the court. Thompson’s performance was part of impressive team defense as the Rockets held the Warriors to 41.6% shooting and dominated 56-40 in the paint. Golden State shot 46.7% on 3s in the first half, but just 27.7% in the second half.
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To go with his 19 points, Şengün added 14 rebounds and four assists. Brooks made 10 of his 13 shots on his way to a team-high 24 points.
Jalen Green scored 21 points for Houston, including 10 in the fourth quarter. Jabari Smith Jr., who had been questionable to play with a sprained ankle, scored 16 points with nine rebounds off the bench.
The Warriors were led by 20 points from Buddy Hield and 19 points from Brandin Podziemski. Draymond Green, who spent most of the third quarter on the bench in foul trouble, had two points, three rebounds and four assists.
The game was a physical battle played in front of a rabid crowd egged on by Green’s antics, with Şengün often on the receiving end.
“He handled it well. He didn’t get baited into it and attacked aggressively offensively and stepped up on the defensive end,” Udoka said. “We understand what it is. (Draymond) was in foul trouble and I think our guys were being aggressive going after him. Then, (Şengün) doesn’t respond when he takes a hit to the face and just continues to play. I liked our poise and composure overall, especially Alpi.”
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Udoka and Curry were drawn into the chippy environment, too. After Green committed three fouls in the final minute of the first half but the Rockets missed five free throws, Houston went into halftime leading 51-50. Before the teams left the court, cameras caught Udoka and Curry exchanging words.
“I was talking to my team about the physicality, ‘This is the type of game we like, this is who we are,’” Udoka said. “He said something, I said something. Nothing. A little friendly banter.”
Curry said, “He made a reservation to International Smoke (the restaurant run by Curry’s wife) and canceled it. So I was kinda upset with him.”
Houston is the worst free-throw shooting team in the league and one of just four teams with a lower percentage than Golden State. The two teams combined to shoot 12-of-27 at the line on Sunday, with the Rockets 6-of-16.
The Rockets’ defensive priority was crystal clear from tipoff: aggressively deny Curry the ball. Curry dished seven assists in the first half but was 1-for-3 from the field, his lone make a 37-footer in the final seconds that sent the Chase Center crowd into hysterics.
The Rockets shapeshifted their lineups for most of the game, vacillating between their usual look with Şengün at center, a double-big lineup featuring Steven Adams and a small-ball group with Smith at center.
“It gives us a ton of versatility to go both ways,” Udoka said. “We start with a neutral lineup, can have Bari anywhere from the three, four, five and that gives us a switchable lineup. Then, our bigs start doing what they do, being physical, pounding the glass, getting guys open. I love the versatility we have there and based on who they have on the court, we felt like we had some favorable things we could go to and kind of exploited them.”
Houston tried to score in transition as much as possible early amid struggles to get going against Golden State’s halfcourt defense. But some the Rockets’ best offense came when passing out of double teams to find open weak-side shooters in the second quarter.
Brooks and Green got hot and helped extend Houston’s lead to 83-76 at the end of the third quarter. A slew of Rockets turnovers allowed the Warriors to close within two points with nine minutes left in the game, but the Rockets unleashed an 8-0 run to put the lead back to double digits.
Sunday’s result dropped the Warriors (46-32) to sixth place in the West and gave the Rockets (52-27) a three-and-a-half game lead for the No. 2 seed, which they can lock up if the Lakers lose to the Thunder on Tuesday.
The Rockets and Warriors could very well see each other again during the NBA playoffs, but Curry said he wasn’t thinking about previous or future postseason matchups on Sunday.
“There’s nothing from the past. Just two great teams trying to win a basketball game,” Curry said. “We understand there could be matchups down the road, but you cross that path when you get there. They’re the second seed in the West, so they’re a really good team. They’ve been beating teams all year in different ways, so you got to take them seriously. They’re proving during this regular season that they’re a tough team any given night.”
The Rockets have won 15 of their last 17 games, the latest back-to-back statement victories against the Thunder and Warriors. Houston’s three remaining games in the regular-season are against the Clippers, Lakers and Nuggets, all jockeying for playoff positioning.
Udoka said the Rockets want to be very sharp and deliberate about how they are playing as playoffs approach.
“Guys understand what’s at stake coming up,” he said. “We’ve thrown a little bit more at them as far as preparation and our guys are handling it well. But understanding that this is a level it’s going to get to, these are teams we’re going to play against and for our guys that have never been there, it was about playing great basketball heading into the end of the season. And we’ve upped our physicality, upped our intensity overall. And I think guys are just really locked in on both sides of the ball. And so getting what we want offensively, guarding the way we are defensively, is what we want to see going into the playoffs.”
