The Golden State Warriors over came a 16 point deficit against the Houston Rockets to win game one of the Western Conference finals at the Oracle Arena.
It was the seventh time this season the Warriors have won a game when trailing by 15 or more points (league leaders in that stat) including a 26 point come from behind regular season victory against the Boston Celtics. The first quarter of Wednesday nights game featured three lead changes and one tie. In the second quarter, the Houston Rockets looked poised to pulverize the Warriors when they catapulted to a 16 point lead. Upon harnessing their huge lead, the Rockets MVP runner-up had only 3 points at this juncture of the contest.
The Warriors went on a 26-5 run during the last seven minutes of the second quarter. The Brazilian blur, Leonardo Barbosa of the Warriors made a phenomenal long bounce pass to Andre Iguodala who then made his easy lay-up to cut the Rocket lead to nine points. (40-31) The league MVP, Stephen Curry buried a 2 point shot at the half time buzzer, giving the Warriors a 58-55 lead.
The Rockets never lead again, but they have solidified themselves as real ballers to make this best of seven game series a real nail biter for fans of either team. The beard, James Harden did his part, amassing 28 point and was one assist away from having a triple double. (11 rebounds)
Trevor Ariza was also an intrical factor for the Rockets with 20 points including a 3 point swisher with less than 15 seconds remaining in the game to cut the Warrior lead to 2 points. (108-106)
Unfortunately for the Rockets they were forced to foul at this stage of the game. It was not surprising to witness Curry sink both of his free-throws for the Warrior 110-106 win.
Bench players for both of these teams are going to have to step it up for either team to win this series. The Warriors star bench player of the night was Shaun Livinston who had a career play-off personal best 18 points.
