The Houston Rockets got back to business in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals last night, rebounding from their Game 1 loss with a decisive 1271-05 victory over the defending champs to tie the series at 1-1.
Five Rockets players scored 16 or more points, including James Harden and sixth man of the year candidate Eric Gordon, both of whom scored 27 points. After the game, the reigning NBA Finals MVP Kevin Durant told The Athletic's Tim Kawakami that Golden State isn't "the juggernauts of the NBA."
"No, shit happens," Durant told The Athletic's Tim Kawakami "We're not invincible. We're not the juggernauts of the NBA. We're a good team, but that's a great team on the other end as well.
"That's the beauty of the game, man. Some games you're going to get knocked out. Some games you're going to get punched in the face. How you respond, that's the beauty of it."
Durant led all scorers last night with 38 points on 13-for-22 shooting, but he got little help from his cast of All-Star teammates. Curry was the only other Warriors player to score in double-figures with 16 points, while Klay Thompson finished with eight on 3-for-11 shooting.
"We got outplayed the whole game ... we got it handed to us," Kerr said, per ESPN. "You can look at it any way you want ... and parcel it out, but it didn't matter who we had out there tonight we got beat."
The series will now shift to Oracle Arena for Games 3 & 4. Game 3 is scheduled to tipoff on Sunday night at 8:00pm ET, airing on TNT.