The Golden State Warriors had a clear game plan on Christmas Day versus the Houston Rockets: Make anyone outside of James Harden beat them.
It proved to be a winning strategy.
After leading by as many as 13 points in the first half, the Rockets (21-10) scored just 36 points in the second half and lost by a 116-104 margin to the host Warriors (8-24), who have now won three consecutive games.
The Rockets finished their four-game West Coast road trip at 3-1, with a home game against the Brooklyn Nets looming Saturday.
The story for Houston was what happened when the ball was forced out of Harden’s hands. Even though the Warriors routinely trapped Harden just inside the halfcourt line, the Rockets weren’t able to consistently take advantage of the resulting four-on-three scenarios.
Excluding Harden, who had 24 points on 50% shooting from the field and 60% shooting (6-of-10) on three-pointers, other Rockets made just 10 of 41 long-range attempts (24.4%) despite many of those being wide open.
Excluding Danuel House Jr., who made 5 of his 12 three-point attempts (41.7%), other Rockets connected on just 5-of-29 (17.2%) shots from long range. Russell Westbrook led Houston in scoring with 30 points, but it came on 32 shots and an 0-of-8 showing from behind the three-point arc. Austin Rivers and Ben McLemore combined for just three makes from deep in 14 attempts (21.4%) off the bench.
Harden led the Rockets with 11 assists, but it could have been much more, had his teammates made those open shots.
Houston’s defense (or lack thereof) was also a story, with the Rockets allowing 24 points in the final five minutes of the second quarter after taking the aforementioned 53-40 lead.
Despite having Harden and Westbrook, the Warriors shot 12 more free throws for the game than the Rockets — in large part due to uninspired defense. Of those 28 total free throws, 10 came from Damion Lee, who led Golden State with 22 points and 15 rebounds.
Overall, the Rockets are now 8-4 in December. But it’s a month that the team may eventually remember for missed opportunities. Though they’ve had high-profile road wins against the likes of the Los Angeles Clippers (22-10) and defending NBA champion Toronto Raptors (21-10), their four losses have come to the Warriors, San Antonio Spurs, Detroit Pistons, and Sacramento Kings. All of those teams are at least five games below .500.
