Golden State Warriors

OAKLAND — Monta Ellis finished drives and tossed in jumpers. He scored standing still and on the run. He hit tough shots and easy shots.
The Rockets countered with free throws.
They hit a lot of them, nearly as many as they ever have in a game. But there was no way that was going to keep pace with the Golden State offensive blitz that sent the Rockets home with a 132-128 loss to the Golden State Warriors and an 0-2 start to the season.
Ellis matched his career-high with 46 points and Stephen Curry added 25, as the Warriors made 55.4 percent of their shots.
“It was a poor defensive effort,” Rockets coach Rick Adelman said. “You score 128 points and you lose; you have to find a way to shore that up.
“He (Ellis) made a lot of shots (he hit 18 of 24), but at the start of the game, we did not load to him, we did not shut off his drives and he was able to get to the basket on us. It seemed like he made every shot.”
The Rockets kept pace with that for a half, but they made just 16 of 44 second-half shots. Luis Scola had 36 points and 16 rebounds. Chuck Hayes, starting with Yao Ming sitting out the second half of a back-to-back, matched his career high with 16 points, making 8 of 12 shots. And Kevin Martin broke his franchise record for made free throws without a miss, scoring 17 of his 28 points from the line, as the Rockets’ 42 free throws came within four of the franchise record.
But while the Warriors could not defend without fouling, the Rockets simply could not defend.
“I just thought we let (Ellis) get off to a great start and we let them get off to a really good first quarter offensively,” Adelman said. “We were on our heels the whole game.”
After rolling offensively through the first half, the Rockets began the second half making just 2 of 13 shots, with the ball movement slowing with each miss. While they bogged down for eight minutes, the Warriors offense continued to soar, pouring in 22 points in seven minutes, taking the lead to double digits.
“I said at halftime, something’s going to happen,” Adelman said. “We’re either going to start making some stops and we’re going to open the game up or they’re going to really get it going and they did. You’re just trading baskets then. They’re at home. They have one guy having a great night. Curry got it going in the second half. And now we have our hands full.”
With the lead at 12, Martin began drawing fouls and knocking down free throws (he went 11 of 11 from the line in the third quarter) and the Rockets closed to within five. But they could rarely slow the Warriors. Even when Ellis and Curry were out, Reggie Williams sent the game to the fourth quarter with consecutive driving layups and a 104-96 Golden State lead.
The Rockets continued to close. With 6:13 left, they were within two. But Curry sank a 3 as easily as Martin had poured in all those free throws, Ellis hit a pair of jumpers, and when Ellis missed, David Lee powered in back in for a three-point play as the Warriors rebuilt their 12-point lead heading into the final 3 ½ minutes.
Scola scored twice inside, reducing the lead to six. But when Aaron Brooks lost the ball on the dribble with 53 seconds remaining, the Warriors made just enough free throws to close out the win from the line.
From the start, the Rockets defense did little to interfere with the Warriors.
A night after the Lakers offense had rolled through the fourth quarter against the Rockets, the Warriors scored every bit as easily. But rather than hit the Rockets with shooting from the backup backcourt, as the Lakers had with Shannon Brown and Steve Blake, the Warriors came right at the Rockets with Ellis scoring their first points and firing away relentlessly through the night.
“He came out and hit a bunch of long 2s, and if you play basketball by the book, you live with those shots,” Shane Battier said. “We waited for him to cool off and he never cooled off. It’s a testament to him. The first quarter was such a horse race. It was so up and down. I don’t think anyone had any interest in playing defense.”
Before long, Ellis seemed capable of closing his eyes and kicking it in as he hit 7 of 9 shots in the first quarter, scoring 17 points and taking the Warriors to a seven-point lead. In the final second of the half, with 27 points already in the book, he launched from 58 feet and the only surprise as the ball caught the rim and caromed away was that he missed.
“We ran up against a good offensive team and they shot the ball lights out,” Brooks said. “We could have played better defense but credit to them, they were feeling it today. At times we broke down well, but they just made shots. Monta Ellis was on another planet. We got hands up on him, but he was just feeling it. But 132 points is way too much to give up.”
It was more than the Rockets could handle, as even their own offensive roll could not make up for their defensive shortcomings.

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