Martinez Tribune The website of the Martinez Tribune.
BY RICK PORCARO
Steph Curry and the Warriors came up just short of a Cinderella comeback Sunday night, falling to the Houston Rockets 117-116 at Chase Center as a contested deep three pointer by Curry just fell short as time ran out.
Steph Curry drives the lane in his first game since January 30. Curry scored 29 off the bench but his last second shot came up short as the Warriors fell to the Houston Rockets 117-116.
Coming off the bench in a regular season game for the first time since March 2012, Curry led the Warriors with 29 points in 26 minutes as he returned to action after missing 27 games.
Golden State outscored Houston 34-25 in the final quarter to make it close, but still fell to 36-42 on the year, assuring their first losing record since the Covid abridged 2019–20 season.
A fired up Steph Curry energizes Warriors fans during his return to action Sunday night, helping to lead Golden State to a 117-116 win over the Houston Rockets.
Curry’s effort was almost enough to overcome a subpar game from Kristaps Porzingis, who fouled out early in the fourth quarter in just 22 minutes of action with only nine points. Draymond Green had a season high tying 12 assists to go along with seven points and six rebounds.
Kevin Durant of the Rockets led all scorers with 31 points. Alperen Şengün added 24 while Jabari Smith Jr. contributed 23.
Houston’s Kevin Durant goes up for a jumper on the way to a game high 31 points during the Rockets 117-116 win over Golden State Sunday night at Chase Center.
Asked about the added energy from Curry’s return, Warriors coach Steve Kerr added, ““You can just feel it. We’re back in the mix. We’re back in the fight with Steph. That’s a hell of a team, they’ve been really hot lately, fully healthy. We took them down to the last shot. Steph looked amazing. He’s worked really hard for this. It doesn’t take much for him to find his rhythm. His rhythm is also our rhythm, all the off-ball stuff that we get as a result of his movement. We got a lot of easy layups. He changes everything.”
The Warriors return to the court against the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday at 7PM.
GAME NOTES:
Houston won the season series (2-1) against Golden State for the first time since the 2019-20 season.
Seth and Steph Curry became the first pair of brothers to play in the same game for the Warriors franchise. They had not been on the court on the same team, at the same time since the 2013 preseason for Golden State and prior to that, in high school.
