Steph Curry and Draymond Green were out for the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night. But when they play the Houston Rockets, it doesn’t seem to matter who’s on the court.
Jonathan Kuminga scored a career-high 33 points, leading the Warriors to their 15th straight win over the Houston Rockets, 99-93. The Warriors snapped a five-game losing streak and extended their dominance over their Texas rivals, who haven’t beaten them since Feb. 2020.
The Rockets have had their chances. Last month, they played a Warriors team missing Curry. Houston came back from 31 points down to force overtime, only for Kuminga to score six points in the extra period to down them, 127-121. On Jan. 21 2022, Curry sealed the win over the Rockets with a buzzer-beater.
It’s not just the current winning streak. The Warriors also beat the Rockets in the playoffs four times between 2015 and 2019, going 16-7 against James Harden’s team. They even beat them in a Christmas Day game in 2019, with Curry injured and Klay Thompson out for the season, in a year Golden State went 15-50.
The loss had to sting Dillon Brooks most of all, since he’s feuded with Draymond Green and the Warriors for years as a member of the Memphis Grizzlies, whom the Warriors also beat in the playoffs. Kuminga hit the game-sealing layup with Brooks futilely trying to defend him.
But while the loss will sting, the Rockets will get another crack at the Warriors very soon. The two teams will meet Tuesday in Houston in the quarterfinals of the NBA Cup, where the Rockets will finally get another chance to knock the Warriors out of a playoff.
