Warriors silence Rockets yet again as Curry scores 40 in win

HOW MANY TIMES MUST THIS HAPPEN.

Feb 1, 2022

The Golden State Warriors won their sixth game in a row with a thrilling display of righteous indignation over the Houston Rockets, winning 122-108 in Texas last night.

How many iterations of the Rockets’ franchise must the Warriors humiliate before the NBA puts a restraining order on GSW for excessive disrespect to a fellow NBA team? THE NBA IS SUPPOSED TO BE A BROTHERHOOD! I’ll get back to this disrespectful relationship later.

Speaking of disrespect, Kevin Porter Jr. sure wanted Stephen Curry’s attention last night. Here’s a quick thread of tweets to sum it up:

Jason Dumas @JDumasReports

JTA on Kevin Porter Jr. jawing at Steph in the 4th

Mark Haynes @markhaynesnba

Kevin Porter Jr. talking that talk. Let's see if Curry has an answer for that.

Antonin @antonin_org

It started with Kevin Porter Jr challenging Stephen Curry. It ended with Steph scoring 24 points in the last 13 minutes and getting MVP chants from the Houston crowd.

TheWarriorsTalk @TheWarriorsTalk

I really wanna send Kevin Porter Jr a thank you card

Grant Liffmann @GrantLiffmann

Steph Curry: 40 pts 13-23 fg 7-14 3pt 5 reb 9 ast 1 stl 1 blk 1 to

Complete and utter destruction. Curry felt the competitive gamesmanship and responded with a 21-point 4th quarter, the biggest 4th quarter explosion of his career.

Connor Letourneau @Con_Chron

Steve Kerr on Kevin Porter Jr. trash talking Steph Curry, whose 21 fourth-quarter points were the most of his career: "I didn't notice that at all, but I highly encourage it."

But in true Curry fashion, he had no problems coaching up Porter Jr. at the conclusion of the victory. What a class act!

Mark Berman @MarkBermanFox26

Kevin Porter Jr on his conversation w/ Steph Curry: “I asked him for some pointers.Being an MVP..that’s someone I can learn from..& after the game he elaborated more..(discussed)making the game easier for myself & the team.Mainly on pick & rolls,being able to dissect the defense”

Warriors on NBCS @NBCSWarriors

No beef here, Steph gave Kevin Porter Jr. some advice after the game 🤝

Marcus Thompson @ThompsonScribe

A bunch of these young players who have a way of going at the incumbent stars while appreciating them. It really adds a layer of fun to the whole dynamic. And the incumbents seem to be generally embracing of the youth — probably because they got so much disrespected from OGs

And that’s what basketball is all about: rising to the challenge, crushing your opponent’s spirit, and then giving them some friendly pointers afterwards.

Wiggins steadies the Dubs to end the first half

With the Splash Bros resting on the bench midway through the 2nd quarter, the Warriors clung to a 43-39 advantage as the Rockets’ announcing team praised the home team for running a defensive zone. That makes sense, right? The two greatest shooters of all-time were off the floor, why not force these Dubs away from the basket and into jumpshots?

Ryan Hollins is Houston’s commentary guy apparently, and he was in the middle of saying “There’s no Curry, no Thompson, so you can really sag off just about the rest of these Warriors—”

Mid-sentence into this blasphemy, Andrew Wiggins roped down this triple.

Hollins sheepishly responded, “Well excuse me, not Andrew Wiggins, he’s an All-Star”.

PUT SOME RESPECT ON HIS NAME. People wanna handwring about Curry and Thompson’s shooting slump from deep, meanwhile Wiggins is out here hitting 41.6% from deep like he’s prime Peja Stojakovic!!

Wiggins kept the warriors ahead in the 2nd period with some pretty scoring. Check how he calmly navigates around a great Kevon Looney screen, finds himself 1-on-1 with center Christian Wood, and gets a textbook stepback jumper out of it.

And now here’s All-Star Wiggs operating as the trigger man on the wing as the Dubs dance through their split-post action. That good ole play where somebody gets the ball close to the basket and waits for one of the Warriors wriggles open. The play that I keep hearing is predictable but somehow keeps winning games despite how much the league has seen it.

Here Wiggins physically backs down his defender with an eye out for his teammates spring around. Once Wiggins determines he’s in a comfortable spot, he activates a Jordanesque fadeaway that bounces in.

I keep harping on it in this space, but the whole reason I’m excited about James Wiseman is the potential of him operating out of the post with no worries about a double-team because the defense is so terrified of guarding the off-ball actions. Wiggins’ shot here is an example of how this play could really be used to isolate a Golden State player who knows how to score with his back to the basket (much like Kevin Durant used to).

WARRIORS OWN THE ROCKETS

I made my blogboi career during the height of the Warriors-Rockets rivalry. Never forget that the Rockets are a floundering franchise now in major part because of what Golden State did to them.

The Dubs strangled out the James Harden-Dwight Howard era.

Then the Dubs put the kibosh on the Harden-Chris Paul era, during a time when the Rockets claimed they were the superior team over the Hamptons 5.

gifdsports @gifdsports

Here is a compilation of all of the Rockets 27 straight missed threes ....🤮🤮🤮

Bleacher Report @BleacherReport

Steve Kerr corrected a reporter about how many straight threes the Rockets missed last year. “27, but who’s counting?” 🤣 (via @YoungNBA)

And then when Golden State was in shambles from injuries and roster shakeup, they smacked Houston around in a signature Christmas win over Harden-Russell Westbrook. Those two guys won MVP’s during Steph Curry’s prime, how could they lose to a depleted Warriors roster that lacked the Splash Bros?!