They PISSED OFF Steph Curry And He MADE THEM PAY For It...

The Rockets and the Warriors went to war. The Thunder absolutely tore the Grizzlies apart, while the Celtics and the Cavs both showed their depth against the Magic and the Heat.
But we gotta start in Houston for the first gruelling episode of what can turn into the best 1st round series of them all. And what’s a better way to start the game than with this monster jam by Shengun over Draymond. That was nasty. On defense, the Rockets entire game plan was to not let Curry shoot 3’s. They had a man glued to him at all times, face guarding him, not worrying about the rest of the players at all. And most of these possessions ended up as planned, with a miss. On the rare occasions Steph got to a little shooting window, he couldn’t convert, as he was clearly thrown off rhythm. Curry started the game 0 for 3 from downtown, and the Rockets had an 8 point lead early. But then, something clicked in his mind and he tried a different approach. And it worked. Steph put his head down and used his quickness to get past the first line of defense that was guarding him up close. Focused solely on his long-range shot, Houston was reminded how deadly of a finisher he’s around the basket. At the start of the 2nd, with Curry on the bench, the Warriors led by Butler cranked up their defense, forcing 3 turnovers in 2 minutes which they turned into points on the other end. Unlike Steph, Buddy Hield and Gui Santos didn’t have problems shooting the 3. So, when Curry got back into the game, Golden State had a 6 point lead. And he made sure to continue to build on that. Meanwhile, Alperen Shengun was left all alone on the offensive end, scoring 8 points of the team’s 13 in the period. Yeah you heard that right. Houston managed to score only 13 points in the 2nd quarter on a horrific 6 of 18 shooting. The Rockets backcourt was especially miserable. Jalen Green and Fred Van Vleet combined for 0 points on 0 for 8 from the field. Steph used that time to adjust his aim and finish the quarter in style. Curry with 10 of his 31 points in the period puts his team up by 13 going into the break. And they came out of it even hotter than before to completely suck the air out of the arena. Himmy steps up and bumps the Warriors lead up to 20 with his 18th point of the game. But, what the Chef cooked on their next trip down the floor was just ridiculous. Yeah, I have nothing to add after that commentary. And if it wasn’t for Shengun pulling out tricks like this out of his pocket I don’t know what the Rockets were going to do offensively. On the other hand, when he gets it going, there’s no stopping Steph. He’s just merciless. However, they didn't know that this was going to be their last bucket of the quarter.
Houston ramped up their defense and used Curry’s absence who sat down for 2 minutes to go on a little run at the end of the 3rd. The Rockets went on a 10 to 1 run to narrow the gap to 9 points going into the 4th. And they continued with their effort to claw their way back into the game by playing solid defense and finding some rhythm offensively, but whenever they came close, Steph kept them at bay with some absurd bombs from deep. Besides Alpi, Houston doesn’t really have a guy with a reliable go-to move in the half-court offense. And most of their buckets came late in the shot clock after draining every possibility of finding a decent look.
The Rockets came as close as 4 points, but here comes Curry with another special.
Oh my goodness, look at the range on this one. Unbelievable. On the other hand, Houston continued to struggle in finding consistency in their attack. Despite grabbing 22 offensive boards, shots just didn’t fall for them. 6 of 29 from downtown. Just 20% - that’s atrocious. Now, I gotta show you this moment of Kerr on the bench asking Butler and Curry are they okay? I understand the question, they both played 40 minutes plus. And, when Fred finally got his 2nd 3 pointer to drop out of 13 tries, to get his team back to a 4 point margin, playoff Jimmy responded with a vintage performance in the clutch to close this game off. Butler with the exclamation point at the end to round up an excellent all-around game with 25 points, 7 boards, 6 assists and 5 steals on 53% efficiency. Great games for both Batman and Robin as the Dubs steal game 1 on the road. On the contrary, the Grizzlies experienced the total opposite in Oklahoma. A Thunderous opening by the league’s best team behind the roaring OKC crowd. But, no one was ready for what was about to happen in the 2nd quarter because… A 20 nothing blitz gave the Thunder a 33 point lead with less than 17 minutes of action. This is insane. I haven’t seen so much energy inside an arena in a while. And the lead just kept on growing to a point where it was looking like the Thunder were playing against a high school team. Finally, some answers by the Grizzlies. Marvin Bagley the III drains a huge half court heave to cut the lead to just 49 points going into the final period. Amazing.