The Golden State Warriors lost Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals to the Houston Rockets at the Toyota Center. Here’s a list of what went wrong on Wednesday.
The reigning NBA champion Golden State Warriors simply didn’t look like the defending champs in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals on Wednesday, losing to the Houston Rockets 127-105 at the Toyota Center.
The game began tightly contested with a 26-21 first quarter, and it appears as if the rest of the game would play out the same way. Unfortunately, the Warriors allowed the contest to go way out of hand over the course of the last 12 minutes of the first half, allowing the Rockets to score 38 points in the second quarter.
Many expected the Dubs to explode for one of their signature runs out of the halftime break, but other than KD’s 18 points in third quarter, nothing seems to go just right for Golden State. The Rockets continued to score at will for the rest of the night, successfully holding off any attempt by the Warriors to close the deficit.
Golden State is now 1-6 in Kevin Durant's 7 highest scoring games of the season (including Playoffs)
— Mike Zavagno (@MZavagno11) May 17, 2018
The only win came in Game 3 v NOP
Kevin Durant led all scorers with 38 points on 13-of-22 shooting from the field (59.1 percent), 3-of-7 shooting from behind the arc (42.9 percent) and 9-of-9 shooting from the free throw line. In addition, he tallied three rebounds in 35 minutes, but finished a game-low -28.
Stephen Curry was the only other Warriors player to finish in double-digit scoring, dropping in 16 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in 34 minutes. He shot 7-of-19 from the field (36.8 percent), 1-of-8 from long range (12.5 percent) and 1-of-1 from the free throw line.
Now that we’ve got the stats out of the way, let’s explore the reasons why the Warriors lost Game 2.