Stephen Curry flips false narrative as Warriors take Game 1 in Houston

The Golden State Warriors have stolen home-court advantage in their first-round series matchup with the Houston Rockets, taking Game 1 with a 95-85 victory at Toyota Center on Sunday night.

All the talk prior to the series was about Amen Thompson's incredible defensive display against Stephen Curry in the teams' last meeting earlier in the month, but the 2x MVP flipped the narrative with a dominant Game 1 performance on the road.

In a game where both teams struggled offensively, Curry's audacious shot-making shone even brighter as the superstar guard went for 31 points on an incredibly efficient 12-of-19 shooting and 5-of-9 from 3-point range.

The Warriors took Game 1 despite some nervous moments down the stretch

After a hard-fought opening period where the Rockets took a 21-18 lead, the Warriors completely dominated the next 18 or so minutes to open up what looked like an unassailable advantage. The visitors outscored Houston 29-13 in the second, in doing so succumbing the hosts to their lowest-scoring first-half of the entire season.

Curry and Jimmy Butler continued to press home the advantage early in the third, with Curry's wild fading three at the end of the shot-clock buzzer giving Golden State a 23-point lead five minutes in the period.

Yet the Rockets bashed their way back into the game thanks to some relentless offensive rebounding, with an old playoff foe in Steven Adams leading the way with 12 boards in 20 minutes off the bench. Houston had 22 offensive rebounds to Golden State's six, allowing them to pull back within three with over six minutes still remaining.

But Curry extended the lead back to seven shortly after with another deep three, while Moses Moody answered Fred VanVleet's triple with one of his own in the final minutes. Despite Houston's size proving extremely problematic in the second-half, Curry and Butler's shot-making in an old-school playoff rock-fight proved enough in the end.

Curry added six rebounds and three assists to his 31 points in 40 minutes, while Butler was a huge two-way presence with 25 points, seven rebounds, six assists and five steals while finishing a +14 in 42 minutes.

Brandin Podziemski was impressive in his playoff debut, recording 14 points, eight rebounds, five assists, two steals and a game-high +17 in his 35 minutes. Golden State shot 47.4% from the floor and 37.5% from 3-point range, while limiting Houston to 39.1% from the floor and a paltry 20.7% from beyond the arc.

The Warriors will now look to take a decisive 2-0 lead on the road when the two teams meet again at Toyota Center for Game 2 on Wednesday.