Looking ahead to Game 3: Golden State vs. Houston

Previously, on The Warriors and the Rockets …

Your Rockets gave you a game, they did they did.

[Follow Dunks Don’t Lie on Tumblr: The best slams from all of basketball]

Houston could have bowed down during what tends to be a typical Game 2 blowout. The team was down 17 points during the second quarter in what looked like an expected, homespun one-sided win from a team already up 1-0. Golden State ran out early to what seemed less like an insurmountable point lead and more like an insurmountable advantage prior to an inspired Houston run in the second quarter which helped turn this mess into a 55-all affair heading into halftime.

Golden State eventually prevailed, by a mere point at 99-98, but it took a James Harden stumble in the final seconds to find a way toward the final buzzer. Harden failed to split an impromptu double team sent his way by Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson in the game’s final play, losing the ball and the game in the process. Rox coach Kevin McHale was criticized by some for failing to secure a timeout in the contest’s waning seconds, but his hands-off approach was the correct one – who on God’s green earth would you trust more to attack a retreating defense more than James Harden in the game’s closing moments?

Stephen Curry, perhaps.

The league’s MVP registered 31 points on just 21 shots in Game 2, he turned the ball over six times but he was also the impetus behind most of Golden State’s breakaways. He paired with fellow W’s mainstay Andrew Bogut to create that early Houston deficit, Bogut managed to hit 7-9 shots for 14 points while offering eight boards and four assists alongside five blocks in only 30 minutes.

Bogut’s pivotman counterpart, the hobbled Dwight Howard, gutted through an obviously pained and sprained left knee to put up 19 points and 17 rebounds in the loss. Howard didn’t look good, this clearly was a game he should have sat out, but instead of staying home the Rockets big man slid that bum left leg around the court for 40 minutes that he should be proud of.

Harden, meanwhile, merely led two significant Rockets comebacks while finishing with 38 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists, three steals, and just two turnovers in spite of basically dominating the rock for nearly 41 minutes. He was brilliant, outplaying the league’s MVP on his home court while keeping what could have been a lacking Rockets crew in the game until the final, unfortunate, seconds.

Three Things to Look For in Game 3

Warriors Minding Their Manners

Golden State was a funny bunch to start the season. That league-best defense was there from the beginning, but the team’s offense (despite its reputation as a thrash outfit full of flotsam and jetsam and endless three-pointers) needed a while to steady itself. The points were there, to be sure, but the team turned the ball over incessantly and the efficiency took a while to rise to expected ranks.

GSW turned the ball over just 12 times in Game 1, a marvelous mark considering its 110 point-mark in the win. Stephen Curry contributed five of those miscues, and he kept up that sloppiness in Game 2 on his way toward six turnovers. Now, 11 cough-ups in two high-possession contests, considering how much Curry has to wrangle the ball, is borderline expected.

It’s still inexcusable. We understand why Stephen was turning it over so much, but MVPs have to stop at some point.

The Warriors turned it over 16 times in Game 2, and those missteps were a huge reason why the Rockets were able to come back from a 17-point disadvantage in the second quarter to tie things up. Houston was a top-five team when it came to causing turnovers in the regular season, and Golden State improved to the ranks of the mediocre as the 82-game slog moved on when it came to taking care of the ball. That much is in place – to a tone, these two are playing as they will.

What’s going to be telling is how the expected champions take care of the ball in the face of Houston’s rowdy home crowd. Golden State can’t have the heart of a champignon.

Josh Smith Defying Stereotypes

If you bother to walk over to your Twitter machine during games, or pause your contest in order to find relief in the ability to fast-forward through all those insipid light beer ads, you may have noticed a rather strident social media theme:

Josh Smith is ruining this game for everyone.

The Rockets have counted on Smith’s contributions as gravy since they signed him just before the midseason mark. Smith wasn’t some free agent prize, a haggled-about eight-figure earner that Houston had to outbid Dallas for. No, this was a guy that Detroit paid to go away, and though he played solid enough basketball against the Warriors in Game 1, his decision-making in the second contest had fans with no rooting interest bashing their heads against the blinds.

Smith missed 12 of 17 shots, he managed just one rebound in 21 minutes, and he was the only Rocket starter with a negative (-9, in less than half a game) plus/minus. Relying on him to respond in front of the home fans is a bit of a stretch, as he’s only known Houston’s court as a salve since winter, and he’ll have to act as that needed X-factor as Golden State readies to act the spoiler away from the Bay Area.

The Indefatigable James Harden

James Harden, famously, doesn’t bother with midrange two-point shots. It’s either threes or lay-ins or dunks or, infamously, free throws, if you wouldn’t mind.

In this series? He’s destroying you on midrange two-point shots. He’s one of the guys that gets to shoot those. A mix of elegance and function, usage pairing with efficiency, and do what you’d like.

He’s shot “just” 16 free throws in this series thus far, making 14, hardly wasting anyone’s time. He’s dove into picks, and he’s spun away from them. He’s pushed, prodded, but also pulled back and made you look a bit silly. His 33-point, 10.5 rebound, nine-assist averages over the first two games remind of Michael Jordan in his “come on, Scottie, get your [stuff] together” early days. He’s been absolutely brilliant and the prime reason why Houston absolutely had a chance to win both games in the Bay.

Whether any of this is sustainable is up to Harden’s legs.

It’s been a long season, and we’re heading toward June. James’ teammates aren’t handing him much help as he yo-yos from possession to possession while dragging his red uniforms with him. It’s more than possible that a spirited Houston crowd and the ease of the home whistle will help slow things down and keep him at the free throw line for most of Game 3 and beyond, but that’s never something to count on.

Harden has played brilliantly in this series, and yet the Rockets still have an egg in their Western Conference finals avatar. How long can he keep this superhuman play up?

I can’t wait to find out.

– – – – – – –

Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops