Final box score (via nba.com):
Final: Warriors 115, Rockets 80 Q4 (2:34): Both teams have inserted their "garbage time" lineups and this game is all but over.Warrios lead, 110-79. Q4 (5:33): Steph Curry makes another triple and the Warriors are up, 103-73. Q4 (5:42): Bogut picks up his 6th foul and he's done for the night. Q4 (6:24): Green scores and the Warriors are on a 6-0 run. Golden State leads, 100-71. Q4 (8:21): Josh Smith scores off a Corey Brewer feed and the Rockets lead, 94-70. Q4 (9:08): Ariza gets the steal and slam and the Rockets cut the lead to 26 as they trail, 94-68. Q4 (10:05): Livingston scores off a nice pump fake and the Warriors lead, 94-65. Q4 (11:32): Brewer gets the fourth quarter started with a jam on Bogut. Warriors lead, 92-63. With 12 minutes to go in the game, this is what the box score is looking like (via nba.com): End of Q3: Warriors 93, Rockets 61 Q3 (0:38): Steph Curry makes another corner triple as he's falling out of bounds and the Warriors are up, 92-61. Q3 (1:09): George Gervin would be proud as Steph Curry gets another finger roll to fall. Warriors lead, 89-59. Q3 (2:44): Nick Johnson has checked into this game and he fouls Iguodala pretty quickly. Iguodala comes up empty at the line. Warriors lead, 85-59. Q3 (3:56): There is a lot of offense happening right now. Curry just made his fifth three of the game and Harden gets his third shot to fall. Warriors lead, 83-58. Q3 (4:44):Corey Brewer scores four straight and the Rockets trail 78-56. Q3 (5:30): Ezeli jams it down with authority and Draymond Green gets a technical foul on the other end. The Rockets now trail, 76-52, after Harden makes the technical free throw and one more free throw after that. Q3 (6:05): Dwight Howard clobbers a Klay Thompson layup and the ball somehow finds its way to Steph Curry in the corner for a big triple. Warriors lead, 74-50. Q3 (7:06): Jason Terry swats Klay Thompson's layup attempt but gets whistled for the foul. Thompson splits the free throws and the Warriors lead, 69-50. Q3 (7:43): James Harden makes a triple and the Rockets are within 18, 68-50. Q3 (9:06): Curry makes a triple and Josh Smith gets the three points right back. Warriors lead, 66-47. Q3 (10:38): Howard hits a jumper and the score is 63-44, in favor of the Warriors. Q3 (11:18): Josh Smith makes his second triple of the night. The Rockets do have a pulse but they still trail, 63-42. Here is your halftime box score (via nba.com) Warning: It might not be suitable for children: Halftime: Warriors 62, Rockets 37 Q2 (0:11): David Lee (yes, he still plays for the Warriors) scores and Golden State leads, 62-37. Q2 (2:21): Howard is fouled again and he misses both free throws. That's 6 misses for Dwight alone. Q2 (2:41): Steph Curry nabs another offensive rebound; this time, it leads to a Thompson triple. Warriors lead, 57-35. Q2 (3:06): Howard misses his fourth free throw of the night and the Warriors lead, 54-35. Q2 (3:31): Josh Smith hits a hook shot after Curry makes all three free throws and the Rockets trail, 52-34. Q2 (4:06): Curry is fouled by Jason Terry and he'll go to the free throw line to shoot 3. The Warriors now lead, 49-32. This is getting really ugly for the Rockets. Q2 (4:34): Steph Curry makes a triple and he has officially passed up Reggie Miller for most 3-pointers made in a post-season. Q2 (4:50): Ezeli scores again and he's up to 6 points. Warriors lead 46-32. Q2 (5:05): Bogut picks up his fifth foul and Howard hits one of his two free throws and the Rockets trail by 14, 44-30. Q2 (5:28): Steph Curry boxes out Dwight Howard and gets the offensive rebound and the foul. Of course, Curry makes both free throws and the Warriors lead, 44-29. Q2 (5:59): Steph Curry gets the scoop layup to fall and Golden State leads, 40-29. Q2 (6:15): James Harden is fouled and he down them both. Warriors lead, 38-29. Q2 (6:57): After about a minute and a half of scoreless basketball, Josh Smith knocks down a corner triple. Warriors lead, 36-27. Q2 (8:42): Iguodala scores on two straight possessions and the Warriors lead, 36-24 Q2 (9:28): Howard redeems himself with a hook shot. Warriors lead, 32-24. Q2 (10:04): Dwight Howard gets fouled and misses both free throws. Unfortunately, that isn't anything new for him. Q2 (10:51): Howard and Ezeli trade buckets and the Warriors lead, 32-22. Q2 (11:37): Ariza gets the second quarter started with a tip putback. Warriors lead, 30-20. First Quarter Box Score (via nba.com): End of Q1: Warriors 30, Rockets 18 Q1 (0:56): Jones knocks down two free throws but Ezeli gets the two points back in emphatic fashion with a big alley-oop jam. Warriors lead, 28-18. Q1 (1:57): Shaun Livingston gets a bucket and Thompson follows it with one of his own. The Warriors now have a 10-point lead, 26-16. Houston might have a problem. Q1 (3:06): Harden powers his way through the lane and gets the lefty layup to fall. Warriors lead, 22-16. Q1 (3:47): It took a couple of tries but Draymond Green gets the putback layup to fall. Warriors lead, 22-14. Q1 (5:17): Howard slams it down. Green follows it with a triple and Terry replies with a layup through contact after losing Curry. Warriors lead, 20-14. Q1 (6:04): Ariza fouls Bogut and the big man knocks down both. He is the first player in double figures in this game. Warriors lead, 17-10. Q1 (6:15): Josh Smith is fouled and he splits the free throws. The Rockets are now in double figures but they trail, 15-10. Q1 (6:31): Bogut scores again in the paint! He's up to 8 points. Warriors lead, 15-9. Q1 (7:21): Bogut gets two straight buckets--off a Howard goaltend and an alley-oop from Draymond Green. Bogut now leads all scorers with 6 points and the Warriors hold a 13-9 lead. Q1 (7:53): Thompson makes another jumper but it's followed by a Dwight Howard superman jam. This game is still tied up; this time, 9-9. Q1 (9:01): Now the point guards--Steph Curry and Jason Terry--and this game is tied up 7-7. Q1 (9:34): Ariza makes a triple and Thompson replies with a jumper and the Rockets lead, 5-4. Q1 (10:21): A layup by the other center, Andrew Bogut, and this game is knotted up at 2 apiece. Q1 (11:20): Dwight Howard gets the game started with a layup and the Rockets lead 2-0. Game 3 has tipped off! Here comes 48 minutes of awesomeness! Doug Collins and Jalen Rose both predict that the Rockets will win this game. Both have predicted the winner correcly in Games 1 and 2. (Note: It isn't hard to bet on the Warriors and be correct) Game 3 will officially begin in 11 minutes. Hold on to your hats, ladies and gentlemen. It is almost game time! Dwight Howard (knee) says he feels much better going into this game than he did going into Game 2. That's a great sign for the Rockets. In this series, Steve Kerr has opted to go with the bigger and better defender in Festus Ezeli rather than David Lee, who was used more often during the Memphis Grizzlies series. Kerr only played Lee a few minutes in Game 1 but had to take him out because he wasn't performing well on the defensive end. Ezeli, on the other hand, has been superb defensively, challenging shots and banging in the paint with Houston's big men. Kerr may have to continue to go with Ezeli, as Marreese Speights has already been ruled out for this game. But that's the beauty of the Warriors. They are so deep that Kerr could go to his 11th man and still get sufficient production. The bench play has been nearly even. In both games, the Warriors bench has only slightly played better than Houston's bench. Though, one guy who has sparkled and been a significant factor has been Shaun Livingston. The lenghty guard has been problematic for the Rockets as he could score in many ways, whether it's pulling up for the medium range jumper, posting up, or just hustling for his points. He has been a bundle of offense and energy off the Warriors bench. Being down 0-2, the Rockets have been faced with adversity already. They were down 1-3 against the Los Angeles Clippers and came back. They will just have to take care of business on their home floor now and hope to eventually steal one at the Oracle Arena. Many people believed the Warriors would steamroll through the Rockets, but that has not been the case. Houston has had excellent opportunities to steal a game, but they've come up short in the end. However, you have to love the way they continue to fight and scrap as much as they can. For the Warriors, Draymond Green continues to be a factor with his versatility on both ends of the floor. On defense, he sometimes takes the challenge of defending Howard in the low block and does a wonderful job. On offense, he has been very special. Even from the power forward position Green has been dishing like he is a point guard. In both games, he came close to recording a triple-double. He has led the team in assists so far in this series, which is another unbelievable stat. For the Rockets to pull out a victory back home, they will need a more dominant Dwight Howard. He did, however, quietly put up 19 points and 17 rebounds in Game 2, but they need him to be more aggressive in the low post. Though, his passiveness is understandable since he is dealing with a knee injury that was close to keeping him out of Game 2. Perhaps one lineup the Rockets could use to contain both Curry and Thompson is the big lineup where Harden plays point guard, and Corey Brewer comes in as the two guard. That way on defense, Houston could stick the pesky Brewer on Curry, with Ariza still on Klay. On offense, this lineup works because either way Harden is going to dominate the ball and set up the offense. He is basically their point guard no matter which position he plays. Kevin McHale has gone to this lineup a few times during the first two games, but maybe he should use it more often because it's their best defensive lineup with nothing being taken away offensively. This is where the Rockets greatly miss Patrick Beverley. With Beverley, they could have two solid perimeter defenders to throw at the Splash Brothers. Unfortunately, Beverley has already been ruled out for the entire series, so the Rockets will have to manage without him. The play of Trevor Ariza has been and will continue to be a factor for the Rockets. He has been hitting timely shots, but most importantly, he has been making timely defensive plays. He had a huge steal and a three during the late stages of Game 2. Why Ariza is a x-factor is because of his defense on Klay Thompson. He has held Thompson to 14.0 points on 36.4 percent shooting from the field through two games. The problem is that Ariza cannot defend two guys at once. Someone else will need to contain Curry while Ariza keeps Thompson quiet. The story through two games has been the second-quarter comebacks by each team. In Game 1, the Rockets were up by as many as 16, but the Warriors came back rapidly and took control of the game. In Game 2, the Warriors were up by as many as 17, but the Rockets came back and made it a close outing. However, Houston never really gained much control of Game 2, but they did put fear in the Warriors crowd. His counterpart James Harden has been just as phenomenal, hitting tough shots from everywhere on the floor. Harden has been averaging nearly a triple-double in this series with 33.0 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 9.0 assists per game. He has been a one-man show, carrying the Rockets with his insane offense. No matter who the Warriors throw at him, Harden finds a way to score. Perhaps they will have to double team him and force the ball out of his hands and force others to try and beat them. Either way though, Harden's incredible play wasn't enough for the Rockets to steal a game on the road. Here are full highlights from Game 2: It's been a showdown between this year's MVP and runner up throughout this exciting series. Curry and James Harden have traded blows with big time shot after big time shot. Curry followed up a 34-point, six-rebound performance in Game 1 with 33 points, six assists, and five three-pointers in Game 2. He has been making it look effortless with his dazzling play, scoring in variety of ways. After getting the biggest stop of their careers, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson led the Golden State Warriors to a 99-98 victory over the Houston Rockets in Game 2 to take a commanding 2-0 series lead. Hello, everyone and welcome to Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals between the Golden State Warriors vs Houston Rockets Live score from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. I will be your host for the evening, Jeffrey Waitkevich.