Online Reporter
STEPHEN Curry went for a game-high 36 point and the Golden State Warriors, despite missing injured Jimmy Butler III, rallied past the visiting Houston Rockets 104-93 on Saturday night to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series in San Francisco.
The Warriors’ Gary Payton II saved nine of his postseason career-high 16 points for a late run and Buddy Hield bombed five 3-pointers to account for a majority of his 17 points. Rookie Quinten Post, making his first postseason start, snatched a game-high 12 rebounds for the seventh-seeded Warriors, who can go up 3-1 in the Western Conference best-of-seven series with another home-court win tonight.
“This series, no game is going to be pretty,” Curry said after the game on the ABC broadcast. “You just kinda have to grind it out. We had 22 points halfway through the (second quarter). You wonder: How are we going to score? You just stick with it and make the right plays.”
The Warriors learned after the pregame warmup that Butler would not be able to go because of a glute contusion suffered in the Game 2 loss at Houston.
“Everybody just stepped up and played for Jimmy,” Curry said. “Hopefully, he’s back soon.”
Aaron Gordon slammed down a dunk as time expired to give the Denver Nuggets a dramatic and much-needed 101-99 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday in Game 4 of their first-round series at Inglewood, California.
Nikola Jokic airballed a 3-pointer as the clock wound down and Gordon leaped to catch the ball and released his dunk just before the red light came on the backboard. A replay review upheld the ruling and the basket allowed Denver to even the best-of-seven Western Conference series at two games apiece.
“You could say it was a lucky play but Aaron is a big athletic man,” Nuggets interim coach David Adelman said. “He met the ball early. I couldn’t tell if it was good or not. I was preparing for overtime. …
“That’s going to be on NBA TV someday and I’m glad we won the game. I’m glad it will be on Nuggets Day and not Clippers Day.”
Jokic had 36 points, 21 rebounds and eight assists as the fourth-seeded Nuggets bounced back from a 117-83 pummeling in Game 3 on the road.
Kawhi Leonard registered 24 points, and nine rebounds and Norman Powell scored 22 for the fifth-seeded Clippers.
“This was really big for us,” Gordon said. “We did what we came here to do and that was get homecourt advantage back.” — Reuters.
