There weren't too many surprises from Game 1 of the first-round series between the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets at Toyota Center on Sunday.
The Rockets brought their top five defense, gained a huge advantage on the glass yet predictably struggled mightily with their half-court offense, while the sheer star power of Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler allowed the Warriors to emerge with a crucial 95-85 road victory.
Steve Kerr is set to continue trying the Warriors' double-big lineup
But if there was one thing that shocked fans during Sunday's Game 1, it was Steve Kerr's answer to Houston's double-big lineup of Alperun Sengun and Steven Adams. The Warriors responded by putting out a double-big lineup themselves, with Kerr putting Quinten Post and Kevon Looney on the floor for their first ever meaningful minutes together.
The center duo played just over two minutes together, meaning it's difficult to say too much about its viability moving forward in this series. It does sound like Kerr will persist with the double-big lineup at certain moments, explaining his rationale to Warriors on NBC Sports Bay Area ahead of Game 2.
“They’ve never played together, but the playoffs sometimes dictate maybe a minute or two here and there. We obviously did it to combat their two bigs," Kerr said. "We like it because Loon’s our best rebounder and Quinten’s one of our best shooters. We’re able to space the floor against them with those two big guys and present a little more size."
While that latter statement is true, it's now up to Post and Looney to live up to the billing in this series. The rookie big man did shoot 40.8% from beyond the arc during the regular season, but missed both his threes and went scoreless across his 12 minutes in Game 1.
Looney meanwhile ranked 11th in rebounds per 36 minutes across the entire NBA during the regular season, but had only one board in nearly nine minutes on Sunday. The bench combination of Post and Looney were badly outplayed by Steven Adams in Game 1, with the veteran center recording 12 rebounds (five offensive) in less than 20 minutes off the bench for the Rockets.
Starting Houston big man Alperun Sengun had 26 points and nine rebounds on Sunday, but the Warriors may just trust DPOY candidate Draymond Green to guard him one-on-one, leaving Post and Looney to try and combat Adams in what's sure to be a big factor in the series moving forward.