HOUSTON — Klay Thompson and Draymond Green paced a third-quarter, 3-point barrage that carried the Golden State Warriors to a 121-94 victory over the Houston Rockets on Sunday at Toyota Center, giving the Warriors a 3-1 lead in this Western Conference first-round playoff series.
Moments after losing All-Star guard Stephen Curry to a right knee sprain, Thompson and Green unleashed a hail of 3-pointers that turned a nip-and-tuck affair into a 21-point lead entering the fourth quarter.
The Warriors can close the series in Oakland on Wednesday.
Thompson finished with 23 points while Green added 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Thompson and Green combined to score 25 of the Warriors’ 41 third-quarter points in levying the knockout blow.
Golden State set an NBA postseason record with 21 3-pointers.
Curry, who missed Games 2 and 3 with a right ankle injury, injured his knee slipping on a wet spot as the back-and-forth first half came to a close. The Warriors forged a 56-56 tie at the intermission when Andre Iguodala converted a Houston turnover into a dunk with 4.4 seconds left. In the third quarter, Golden State did most of its damage from the perimeter.
Thompson ignited the run with a 3 at the 10:15 mark for a 64-57 lead. Green added consecutive 3s before his dunk extended the lead to 74-65. The Warriors followed with three consecutive treys, two from Thompson, before Shaun Livingston completed a three-point play with 4:39 left in the period. Thompson added another trey for an 89-74 lead.
Golden State started 6 of 7 from behind the arc before closing the third quarter 8 for 12, the last miss coming when Green tossed up a 69-foot heave at the buzzer. Green had upped the lead to 97-76 with his dunk.
Iguodala scored 22 points off the Warriors bench. Curry had six points and five assists before departing, missing 7 of 9 shots and 6 of 7 treys.
Dwight Howard posted a double-double (19 points, 15 boards) while James Harden had 18 points, seven rebounds, 10 assists and seven steals. Michael Beasley scored 17 points in 20 minutes off the Rockets’ bench.
It was Beasley who provided the initial thrust for Houston after the Warriors built a 27-17 lead on an Iguodala 3-pointer with 1:47 left in the first quarter. Beasley responded with seven quick points, and when Harden drilled a 3 at the buzzer, the Rockets had erased that 10-point deficit.
Howard and Harden combined to energize the Rockets in the second quarter, working in concert to build the Houston lead to 43-36 via a Howard dunk with 8:48 remaining. But the Rockets never found their stroke from deep (5 for 27 on 3s), and their 18 turnovers yielded 23 points for the Warriors, who closed the contest shooting 51.7 percent.
NOTES: As expected, Warriors PG Stephen Curry returned to the starting lineup after missing Games 2 and 3 with a right ankle injury suffered in the series opener. Curry practiced without issue on Saturday and arrived at Toyota Center on Sunday pain free. The Warriors are 3-2 without Curry this season. … Rockets F Corey Brewer played a total of 41 minutes through the opening three games of the series, a decline in minutes tied to the production of the Rockets’ power forwards and the increased minutes allotment to F Trevor Ariza, who played a series-high 117 minutes entering Game 4. … Rockets C Dwight Howard is one of three players in NBA playoff history (Wilt Chamberlain and Bob Pettit) with career averages of at least 19 points and 14 rebounds (minimum: 10 games played).