HOUSTON — In the first game Sunday at Toyota Center, the Rockets grabbed, bear-hugged, tugged, and bullied their way to 22 offensive rebounds. The Warriors responded with hard-nosed defense of their own, swallowing the ice-cold Rockets guards and limiting Houston to 85 points.
Golden State knew what to expect in Game 1. So when they say they’re bracing for even more physicality in Game 2, they’re doing so for a reason.
“Oh, there’s going to be a fight, we know that,” head coach Steve Kerr said after shootaround Tuesday.
“Hopefully not literally, but figuratively. They’re a tough, physical, defensive-minded team. Great team. They’re bringing it. We’ve been through this for many years. This will be the most force that we will face in this series, right from the beginning, because we know that they need to win this game.”
The circumstances of the series put pressure on Houston. Teams that go down 0-2 at home have a 4-24 series record since 1984 in the current 2-2-1-1-1 format. If the Warriors take both games in Houston, the series would be effectively over.
“Think they’ll just be a little more physical,” Brandin Podziemski said. “They’ll play more desperate. They know they’ve got to win one before we go back home.”
The Warriors anticipate the Rockets to embrace their identity.
Like the Warriors, who are made in the egalitarian image of their coach, the Rockets take on the persona of Ime Udoka.
“Ime was a grinder as a player,” Kerr said. “Tough, physical. That’s what Houston is.”
In Game 2, the Rockets are probably going to lean even more into their brand. They could play Steven Adams even more; he hauled in five of Houston’s 22 offensive rebounds on Sunday. They were already doing everything they can to rough Steph Curry up, but will likely test the limits of that approach as well.
Even on offense, the Rockets could up their physicality. They struggled in the halfcourt, where they posted a dismal 65.5 offensive rating. But they had pockets of success posting up Curry, like when Amen Thompson and Jabari Smith Jr. scored over him down low. Perhaps they could seek out that matchup more with Thompson, Smith, and Dillon Brooks.
That’d only continue the theme of old-school, 1990s-style basketball.
Houston most frequently targeted Curry from the perimeter with Jalen Green. But Curry held up in that matchup, forcing Green into tough shots. Green shot 3-for-15 on the night and has struggled against Golden State all season. Look for Houston to try to get him the ball on the move instead of trusting him to isolate.
The Warriors could see even more of the Adams-Alperen Sengun tandem, which recorded a regular-season offensive rebounding rate of over 50%. In some of Houston’s biggest lineups, their shortest player is Thompson at 6-foot-7. In Golden State’s preferred lineup, Jimmy Butler is the tallest player at 6-foot-7.
Houston going big for longer stretches, even with Curry on the floor, would signal they want to rough the series up.
“I wouldn’t say that we’re ‘smaller,’ we’re just not as tall,” Butler said after Game 1. “But, we’ve got hella fight.”
More than X’s and O’s, the game will be won in the margins. Golden State lamented missing a few 50/50 balls and long rebounds. It’s hard to manufacture urgency, and the Rockets won’t have to. Their desperation entering Game 2 is real.
“We expect them to come out with even more force,” Kevon Looney said. “Play even harder, think the crowd will be even louder. They’ve got a lot of tough guys, so we expect them to try to punch us in the mouth, try to push us around. But we’ve got to meet their force, meet their intensity. I feel like we’re capable of it.”