Jalen Green made eight triples and scored 38 points to take the Houston Rockets to a 109-94 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night in an irritable confrontation for even the series of the West Conference of First Round in one game each.
The seventh Warriors planted never led and played with a short hand most of the night after Jimmy Butler left with a contusion of the pelvis after a hard fall in a foul in the first quarter.
Green, selection number 2 in the 2021 draft, recovered from a failure in his playoff debut, when he scored only seven points in 3 of 15 shots, with a dominant 2 game.
His eight triple were two more than Rockets No. 2 made in 6 of 29 shots in a defeat of game 1 of 95-85.
Alperen Sengun had 17 points and 16 rebounds for rockets. Tari Eason had 14 points from the bank.
Game 2 is Saturday night in Golden State.
Stephen Curry had 20 points and nine assists for the Warriors and became the 11th player in the NBA history to reach 4,000 career playoff points with 4.017.
Houston led by 20 with approximately 10 minutes before the Warriors used a 9-0 race, with two 3 of Quinten Post, to reach 11. Jalen Green was called for a flagrant foul at Dayond Green at the end of that race after he agitated later.
Then, the Rockets used an 8-0 Sturt, highlighted by a retreat 3 of Green, to extend the advantage to 99-80 with 5:30 minutes remaining. Drayond Green received a technical foul in that section to argue with the officials and Eason received one for throwing a towel in an “unsportsmanlike way.”
The loss of Butler, acquired from Miami in an exchange of February, was a great blow to the Warriors after having 25 points, seven rebounds and six assists in the first game in the series. In addition to Butler’s injury, the Warriors were also hindered by Brandin Podziemski’s stomach disease.
Most of the first half of dealing with the problem was lost and had no score in 14 minutes after scoring 14 points in game 1.
Associated Press reports.
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