STEPH CURRY LAMENTED an off night as the Golden State Warriors were pegged back by the Houston Rockets in game three of their NBA playoff series.
The Warriors star went just 7-for-23 shooting as the Rockets prevailed 126-121, including a scarcely believable miss with 21 seconds remaining, when he appeared to change his mind, shaping to lay-up and then attempt a dunk.
Facing the prospect of falling 3-0 behind in the Western Conference semi-finals, the Rockets claimed a big win thanks to James Harden’s 41 points.
Houston were aggressive from the start and led for most of the contest. Every time the Warriors closed the gap, the Rockets seemed ready to pull away again. Harden led the way for the home team, while the reigning NBA MVP had a valuable contribution from Eric Gordon, who tallied 30 points and made seven three-pointers.
Kevin Durant was a nightmare for the Rockets and lit them up for 46 points after a poor shooting performance in the first half. Durant really poured it on in the fourth quarter and helped the Warriors steal the lead briefly down the stretch and extend the game into overtime.
The Warriors fell just short as Curry missed his routine lay-up, which would have reduced the Rockets’ lead to 126-123 with 21 seconds remaining in OT. The Rockets will attempt to even the series in Game 4 on Monday.
Curry, a three-time NBA champion over the past four years, conceded he was well below his usual best after an outing that delivered 17 points, three rebounds and four assists.
“It just wasn’t my night,” Curry said. “That [missed dunk] was pretty self-explanatory right there.”
When asked why he opted against a lay-up, Curry replied: “Because I was feeling pretty good. I had a nice head of steam and probably a little bit of frustration too around how the rest of the night went, but not my finest moment.”
Curry dislocated his finger in Game 2 but swiftly returned, and he did not want to make excuses for any misses in Game 3.
“I just got to make those,” he added. “I’m out there playing. Got to produce, and it just didn’t happen tonight.”
“We know what Steph is capable of,” said team-mate Draymond Green. “You grow to expect that. You don’t really expect to have a guy to have an off night like he did.
“Nonetheless, we need Steph to continue to be Steph. Continue to shoot the basketball, no matter if he’s struggling or not.
“When he’s on the floor, he opens a lot of things for everybody else. Still have an impact that way. We know his shots will start falling.”
And Andre Iguodala echoed the sentiments of Green.
“We’re all human,” he said. “We all will have situations that normally don’t happen to us, so not worried about that at all. He’s fine.
“He’ll continue to draw that much attention and continue to make amazing plays. And like I said, we’re all human, we all make mistakes.”
