Here are five observations from the Warriors’ 120-107 win over the Rockets on Sunday night in Chase Center.
1. The three Otto Porter 3s
The young, bouncy Rockets showed some first-half life on the second night of a back-to-back. That aggressiveness met an overly physical Warriors defense that reached and bumped its way to 17 fouls the first two quarters.
“The whistle was good,” Steve Kerr said. “We deserved all those fouls.”
Team foul trouble means personal foul trouble. Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Jordan Poole all had three midway through the second quarter. So Kerr, protecting his two most important players, put Poole on the floor while Curry and Green rested the final minutes of the first half. Houston was within one point with under two minutes before the break. It felt like a vulnerable time for the Warriors.
It instead served as the night’s turning point in the Warriors’ direction, almost entirely due to Otto Porter Jr., the former $25 million wing they grabbed on the veteran minimum this past summer with the hope that he’d stay healthy enough for his deadeye shooting to make a difference off the bench.
It did on this night. Just take a look at this 40-second sequence late in the first half.
• With 1:45 left, Porter passes out of a mid-post touch to Poole on the wing. Poole uses a Kevon Looney screen to draw a double team.
