Durant unfazed after Warriors lose season series vs. Rockets
The Houston Rockets pulled through late against the Golden State Warriors to win the season series 2-1.
While the Rockets were pushed forward by their star players, the Warriors couldn't seem to get theirs going in the 116-108 defeat. Kevin Durant led the way for Golden State, but when it came down to clutch time, the Warriors couldn't find a way to score.
The result could have significant implications, as Houston now owns the tiebreaker should the two teams finish with identical records. Despite conceding home-court advantage in a hypothetical playoff series, Durant doesn't believe it carries much weight in the grand scheme of things.
"The season starts over when you're in the playoffs anyway, so it doesn't matter," Durant said, according to ESPN's Chris Haynes. "You're going to have to get through these teams to get to where you want to go. You have to play at home and on the road, so it really doesn't matter. We just want to be playing good basketball when it comes down to that point."
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Prior to this season, the Warriors had won 11 of 12 regular-season meetings with Houston and had beaten the Rockets 4-1 in both the 2015 and 2016 playoffs.
However, Durant believes this year's Rockets team is a different animal. More than just adding Chris Paul to the roster, Houston also brought in defensive aces Luc Mbah a Moute and P.J. Tucker to go with the consistently improving play of Clint Capela. The Rockets have become more than just the high-powered offense that relied on James Harden to carry them every game.
"They're very tough," Durant said. "I really like this team, I really like their coach, they got a good home crowd. I think the difference between them last year and this year - obviously, everybody I know, everyone is going to say CP, but they're just playing harder. I feel like they're playing harder on the defensive side of the ball, I feel like they've got versatile defenders. Capela has gotten better. It's just more than CP. They're doing a good job of meshing together."
As of Sunday, the Rockets sit 3.5 games behind the Warriors for first place in the Western Conference standings.