Kevin Durant Led The Warriors To A Comfortable Game 1 Win Over James Harden And The Rockets

The Warriors were a 1.5-point underdog in Game 1 of their Western Conference Finals series with the Rockets as it tipped off on Monday night in Houston. It was the first time that Steph Curry and Kevin Durant were both active and Golden State was an underdog and on Monday everyone was reminded why that had never happened and, likely, won’t happen again any time soon.

The Rockets came out hot and jumped out to an early lead, but the Warriors never panicked pulling back within one point as they entered the second quarter. From there, it was Golden State’s turn to take brief control before James Harden and the Rockets stormed back to tie things up at halftime.

In the third quarter the Warriors seized control and while Houston never really faced a huge deficit, it always felt like they were simply trying to hang on and hang around, while Golden State seemed to be on the brink of breaking their lead wide open at any moment. Ultimately, the result was a 119-106 Warriors win, following the lead of last year’s Finals MVP Kevin Durant, who dominated all game with 37 points and could seemingly get whatever shot he wanted at any given moment.

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Houston got a monster performance from the presumed NBA MVP, James Harden, as he lit up the Warriors to the tune of 41 points, doing damage from all over the court.

However, no one else on the Rockets was able to supplement Harden’s effort, as Chris Paul had 23 points, 11 rebounds, and three assists, but needed 14 shots to get those 17 points. Where Harden appeared at times to be going it alone, Durant got a big boost from Klay Thompson who had 28 points, including six three-pointers that included what turned out to be the dagger, with the Rockets down just seven with four minutes to play after an apparent backcourt violation wasn’t called.

Even with that minor bit of controversy, it likely wouldn’t have mattered. The Warriors’ onslaught was too much for Houston, which struggled down the stretch to get good looks against the Golden State defense. The Rockets shot the ball solidly, but not spectacularly, with a 46.4/35.1/71.4 shooting split as a team, which indicates exactly how good they’ll have to be in order to get wins in this series.

Golden State rode the offensive efforts of Durant and Thompson, getting away with a somewhat lackluster Steph Curry outing (18 points, eight assists, and six rebounds certainly isn’t shabby, but you didn’t feel his imprint on this game as much as usual) because of the efforts of his backcourt mate and fellow former MVP teammate. That appeared to be the biggest difference in Game 1. Golden State’s margin for error is so much larger than Houston’s in the sense that the Rockets need Harden and Paul to show up, along with their role players to knock down open threes, while the Warriors can afford an off night from key contributors.

We’ll see if the Rockets can regroup and get that necessary effort in Game 2 on Wednesday to at least take a series split to Oakland.