in the 131-116 loss in Game 5<\/a>. Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler and the rest of Golden State\u2019s starters spent most of the second half watching from the bench after coach Steve Kerr inserted his reserves with about five minutes left in the third quarter and Houston up by 29.<\/p>\nKerr shouldered the blame for the poor performance that allowed Houston to move the best-of-seven series to 3-2.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t have them ready to play, clearly,\u201d he said. \u201cWe committed three fouls in the first two minutes of the game and I think they were 13 for 13 from the line after the first quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t come out with that lack of defensive focus and energy and expect to beat a great team on their home floor in a close-out game,\u201d he continued. \u201cThey took it to us, they were awesome tonight and we\u2019ve got to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Houston\u2019s success on offense early made it difficult for Golden State to get anything going.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were out of sorts from the beginning, especially defensively, and I think that carried over to our offense,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to play offensively when you\u2019re taking the ball out of the net every single play.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was clear to Kerr at halftime that this was not going to be the Warriors\u2019 night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think at halftime, their effective field goal percentage was 95%,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen that in my life. You\u2019re not winning that game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Butler managed just eight points in 25 minutes on 2-of-10 shooting after combining for 52 points in the two full games he\u2019d played in this series.<\/p>\n
Curry was 4 of 12 for 13 points after scoring more than 30 points in two of the first four games to move the Warriors within a game of clinching the series.<\/p>\n
Curry had his right thumb wrapped during the game and had a bag of ice taped on it afterward. It appeared to be swollen in a picture circulating online of him walking to the team plane.<\/p>\n
Asked about the state of his thumb, he answered with one word.<\/p>\n
\u201cCold,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
When pressed, he provided a few more details.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t even know how to answer it,\u201d he said. \u201cSomething you are dealing with and keep it moving as long as I can play. I\u2019ve got it wrapped for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was emphatic when asked if it was impacting his game.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d he said. \u201cNone. No.\u201d<\/p>\n
Houston\u2019s Dillon Brooks was asked about the Golden State broadcast team suggesting that he\u2019s targeting Curry\u2019s thumb by swiping at it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I had an injured ankle, I would attack that ankle every single time,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, whatever they\u2019re saying on the broadcast, they can keep saying it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kerr praised his backups for bringing an energy the team will need to rediscover in Game 6, which is Friday night in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
Reserve Moses Moody led the Warriors with 25 points. Golden State\u2019s 76 bench points were the most in a playoff game for the franchise since 1970-71, when starters began being tracked.<\/p>\n
\u201cHouston was great and they took it to us right away,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cBut like I said, it was an important finish.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 The Golden State Warriors struggled on both ends of the court Wednesday night to squander…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2889,7,579,1195,164,292,194,313,1104,6,446,11,66,573,863,582],"class_list":{"0":"post-6153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-athlete-injuries","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-ca-state-wire","11":"tag-dillon-brooks","12":"tag-golden-state-warriors","13":"tag-houston","14":"tag-houston-rockets","15":"tag-jimmy-butler","16":"tag-moses-moody","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-nba-basketball","19":"tag-nba-playoffs","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-stephen-curry","22":"tag-steve-kerr","23":"tag-tx-state-wire"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114435635510086979","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}