It took some last-second heroics from James Harden, but the Houston Rockets held off the short-handed Golden State Warriors 97-96 in Game 3 Thursday night.
FINAL: Warriors 96, Rockets 97. James Harden hits the go-ahead bucket as Houston survives late Warrior run. pic.twitter.com/PnNY2WxiXe
— SLAM Magazine (@SLAMonline) April 22, 2016
Afterwards, a pair of front-office big wigs—general manager Daryl Morey and Tad Brown, the team’s CEO—took to Twitter to throw shots at the referees and TNT analyst Charles Barkley.
Golden State also almost got key arm bar submission here-would have ended match in 1st half https://t.co/LUegzP2uCN https://t.co/3LjsfYmnfj
— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) April 22, 2016
should have been Golden State win – takedown is worth 2 points https://t.co/28TTy1pKCG https://t.co/8wonKWgvFb
— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) April 22, 2016
@dfbarron Charles would know, his entire rockets career was fake hustle
— Tad Brown (@tadbbrown) April 22, 2016
Warriors All-Star forward Draymond Green said he cost the defending champs the game by coughing up the rock in crunchtime.
Per the AP:
Harden scored 35 points, including the game-winner with 2.7 seconds left, and the Rockets took advantage of Stephen Curry’s absence to get a 97-96 victory over the Golden State Warriors in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series. […] The victory cuts Houston’s deficit to 2-1 in the best-of-seven series. Game 4 is Sunday in Houston.
“The last shot was typical of what James does,” coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “The move, we’ve seen before. The finish, we’ve seen before. You do get spoiled by it at times, but in these biggest of moments, you can’t help but appreciate it.”
Golden State had a chance to win it after that, but Draymond Green dribbled the inbounds pass off his foot and out of bounds. […] “I cost us the game,” Green said. “The world will think I’m talking about that last turnover but I’m not. That happens. I was awful the whole game. I care about that turnover, but I cost us the game way before then.”
