Golden State Warriors win Game 4 on their passing
No Stephen Curry turned out to be better than a hobbling Stephen Curry.
The Golden State Warriors outscored the Houston Rockets 65-38 in the second half after Curry left with a sprained knee. They had a 41-20 advantage in the third quarter.
The Warriors have scored at least 40 points in a quarter 15 times this season. No other team has done so more than six times.
Curry was 2-of-9 from the field when he did play, matching his worst field-goal percentage in any game this season (22 percent).
Regardless, the Warriors improved to 10-0 when following a loss this season.
A true team record
The Warriors set a single-game postseason record with 21 3-pointers.
The previous mark of 20 was done four times, most recently on Wednesday by the Cavaliers.
The Warriors generated 20 of those 3-pointers off passes, two fewer than they totaled in Games 1 through 3 combined. The Warriors went 22-of-59 on 3-point attempts off passes in the first three games, but were 20-of-32 in Game 4.
Klay Thompson made seven of those 3-pointers. He was 0-of-7 from 3-point range in Game 3 and entered the day shooting 24 percent on those shots for the series.
With Curry out, the Warriors assisted on 21 of their 24 made field goals in the second half. They shot 21-of-27 off passes in the last two quarters (78 percent).
Warriors take away paint in second half
The Rockets owned the paint in the first half, hitting 15-of-19 attempts, including their first 11 shots. The Warriors took away the easy looks in the second half, holding the Rockets to 9-of-21 in the paint.
Looking ahead
The Warriors are 6-0 all time in best-of-7 series when leading three games to one. The Rockets are 2-9 all time when faced with a 3-1 deficit, with series wins in 1995 against the Suns and 2015 against the Clippers.
Teams that take a 3-1 lead in a best-of-7 win the series 96 percent of the time.
Curry could miss his third game of the series. If he does, the Elias Sports Bureau notes that it would mark the third time that the leading scorer on a 60-win team missed at least three postseason games. Peja Stojakovic missed six for the Kings in 2002 and Dirk Nowitzki missed three for the Mavericks in 2003.
The Warriors are 3-2 in the regular season and playoffs this season without Curry, including 1-1 in this first-round series versus the Rockets. In the five games without Curry, the Warriors average 10.2 fewer points per game and have been outscored by an average of 1.4 points per game.