Golden State Warriors Lose Another Close One, 116-112 To Houston Rockets

Dec 13, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors head coach Mark Jackson calls out to his players during the second quarter against the Houston Rockets at Oracle Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

The same story. The Golden State Warriors built themselves yet another big hole, but with a great team like the Houston Rockets, it’s nearly impossible to climb out of that deficit. Tonight, in a game that the Warriors should have had, based on their excellent play, they were defeated by the Rockets, who have become rivals to them, 116-112.

In the first quarter of the game, the Rockets, of course, started hot and torched the Warriors. The pace was back and forth, and the Warriors were eventually able to hang in there, finding themselves down by just one with a score of 30-29. This was a refreshing site to them because the first quarter is really where they have their meltdowns.

This just goes to show the lack of depth that the Warriors have. When Andre Iguodala fell to injury, the Warriors were immediately in some trouble. He’s expected to play before the New Year, but until the Warriors can really take off and climb up the standings, they have to be able to survive without him. So far, all attempts of covering up the hole he left have gone without success.

The deficit was created in the second quarter, where the Dubs were outscored by six points. They trailed by just seven at halftime, but against a team like the Houston Rockets, this was too big a hole to climb out of. Seems unlikely that the best 3-point shooting team in the league connected on just 6-of-22. The Rockets, meanwhile, 15th in the league in this category, drilled 12-for-29.

Here, the Rockets grew to a double digit lead, but the Warriors were able to escape without serious damage. Still, some controversial calls came when Dwight Howard’s block was not called goaltending. Additionally, a few of Stephen Curry’s fouls could have gone either way, and were very questionable.

This and turnovers was the story of this very physical game. Obviously, the Warriors played with not a lot of reinforcements off the bench, and again, their shallowness has been a huge problem ever since Dre went out against the Los Angeles Lakers earlier this season. These problems are going to persistent until he gets back to the starting lineup. Then, Barnes can come off the bench and provide some scoring there. The Warriors are then a million times deeper.

As of now, their defense is weaker, their offense is weaker and they’re barely finding a way to survive at 13-11. The Warriors were called for 30 personal fouls, while the Rockets were called for 23.

The story of the night was Marreese Speights, who woke up tonight. He silenced all doubts and criticism by scoring 16 points in 16 minutes while grabbing eight offensive rebounds, and 9 in total. He played a great game and was highly efficient. To give you some perspective, however, his +/- stat is at 0. This is how poorly the Warriors played on the defensive end.

In the end, the Rockets were too much for the Warriors, as they couldn’t get out of such a small hole. They now travel to Phoenix on Sunday where they will face Eric Bledsoe and the scorching hot Phoenix Suns, who have had some surprisingly good play this season.