Scott Strazzante/S.F. Chronicle
Scott Strazzante/S.F. Chronicle
Scott Strazzante/S.F. Chronicle
Scott Strazzante/S.F. Chronicle
HOUSTON — During a loose-ball scramble in Wednesday night’s 109-94 Rockets win over the Golden State Warriors, Stephen Curry found himself on the floor, wrestling for the ball with Houston’s Jalen Green.
The enthusiastic tug-o-war continued long after the whistle and the jump-ball ruling. The two players didn’t seem friendly. Funny, because several years ago, Green was a respectful camper at Curry’s basketball camp in San Francisco, and he has worked out with Curry in the past.
Their relationship has changed.
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“It ain’t a ‘look up to you’ kind of thing anymore,” Green said, after scoring 38 points to Curry’s 20. That point differential was pretty much the difference in the game.
Green scored just seven points in Game 1 of this series. Wednesday in Game 2, the series took an abrupt turn in the noisy, and somewhat nasty, Toyota Center.
It was an ominous night for the Warriors. The Rockets dialed up the physicality, won the rebound battle 47-33, the paint battle 46-28, and won the emotional battle to even the series. And the Rockets, with only two players with prior playoff experience, shook off any jitters.
“That first game was a little over my head,” Green said of his first NBA playoff experience. “The lights were bright, the crowd was here, the court was huge. I couldn’t really get a chance to settle in, my legs was shaky, but that’s part of … I thought I did a good job answering back.”
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There’s your theme. Answering back. The Warriors asserted their experience and basketball skills in Game 1; then the Rockets, to use that corny old expression, punched ’em in the mouth.
The Rockets play a little bit harder style of ball, egged on by their fiery-eyed coach, Ime Udoka.
“They’re Little Imes out there,” said one observer.
The question now is, will the Warriors get bullied out of the playoffs by the Little Imes?
The Rockets wanted to come out smokin’, and they did. Halfway through the first quarter, Steve Kerr thought the refs missed a tripping foul. The head coach gave a long and heated lecture to the refs, a session that got so hot that a Warriors security guy kind of gently tugboated Kerr back towards his bench.
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On the Scoville scale of pepper heat, that’s about as hot as you’ll see Kerr in any first quarter. How about it, Steve?
“Just the usual stuff,” Kerr shrugged. “It’s playoff time, everybody’s hyped up. I think I was mad because Gary (Payton II) got tripped, Gary had a dunk, clearly got tripped and I thought it should have been a foul called and it wasn’t.”
That’s Kerr taking the predictable no-whine route. With rare exception, whatever complaining about officiating or opponent physicality he does, he does behind closed locker room doors. The only griping he did postgame was about Rockets fans near the Warriors’ bench chanting “FU, Draymond.”
“Maybe I’m old school,” Kerr said. “I just think ‘F you’ is a little much.
Draymond’s critique was more stinging.
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“It’s not original,” Draymond Green said of the chant. “I’ve been there before, won a championship while it was happening. You can’t steal other people’s s—, that belongs in Boston.”
Otherwise, Kerr took that high road.
“I thought tonight’s game was all about Houston outplaying us,” he said. “It was their night, they played a great game at both ends of the floor.”
Will that continue? That’s the question of the series now. For both teams. Those other guys are mean, what are you going to do about it?
Maybe Kerr will show his guys replays of familiar villain Dillion Brooks shooting a 3-pointer, then falling down and tripping Curry on the shot follow-through.
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The Rockets, it should be noted, have their own view of the interplay between the teams. They’re proud of their grind and growl, but apparently the Warriors have an annoying side, too.
“We (are) watching the films,” said Rockets’ center Alperen Sengün. “They do that (questionable play), I’m just ready for that, it’s playoff time now, they gonna be grabbing, too, so we do the same thing, so there’s just no complaining out there. We just gonna go out there and play. Hopefully nobody gets hurt.”
Too late for that wish. Jimmy Butler was knocked out of the game early by an apparently unintentional low-bridge hit by Amen Thompson.
“It’s so fun, man,” Tari Eason said, “you play against Golden State, it’s so fun, we knew that they gonna do that, they try to get in our head, so we just try to be calm. We have a lot of young guys, but we have some old guys too.”
If that leaves the impression that the Warriors do more talking, while the Rockets do more rocking, that might not be far from the truth.
The reality is that the Rockets have embraced a style that tends to flourish in the playoffs, when the referees become, to use a phrase from constitutional interpretation, “loose constructionists.”
That’s not going to change. It’s up to the Warriors to adjust. The tone for this series is set.
