NBA: Warriors stay golden with a dominant win over the sputtering Rockets
San Francisco, California - The Golden State Warriors are still on top of the NBA standings after dominating the Houston Rockets at home on Sunday night.
The Warriors downed the Rockets 120-107 for their second four-game winning streak of the season to improve their record to a league-best 8-1.
Houston, one of the league’s few one-win teams, has lost a league-worst eight games in a row.
The Rockets surprisingly started the game in a decent position, only to trail by five points at the end of the first quarter.
They even gained a four-point lead in the second quarter before that disappeared into thin air.
The Rockets conformed to their bottom-feeder status and it was no surprise to see them finish with a whopping 21 turnovers in another sloppy performance.
As expected, they ran out of gas and slowly came up short during the second half on their way to the loss.
The player spotlight
Once again, Warriors guard Jordan Poole (22) was the high man for Golden State.
He’s become a valuable fill-in to help Steph Curry while their other sharpshooter, Klay Thompson, is still on his way back from injury.
In the last two games, he’s performed better than his current season averages in points, rebounds, and assists.
By the end of the night, he finished 7-for-13 shooting, 25 points, five assists, and four rebounds.
The big picture
The Warriors are sitting pretty currently as the best team in the league and they’ve now also put some distance between themselves and the next contender out west in the Utah Jazz, who were just handed a shocking loss on Sunday by the Magic.
Golden State doesn’t even have one of their best weapons back to play yet, but they already seem like one of the stand-out contenders for this season’s crown.
On Monday, the Warriors stay at home to host the Hawks, while the Rockets look to snap their skid at home on Wednesday against the Pistons.
Cover photo: imago/Icon SMI