Even without NBA leading scorer James Harden, the Houston Rockets took it to Golden State from the very start.
Eric Gordon scored 25 points with four three-pointers, Chris Paul converted two free throws with 1:08 left on the way to 23, and the Rockets simply outplayed the Warriors without the ill Harden for a 118-112 victory Saturday night.
Stephen Curry's three with 1:57 to play pulled the Warriors to 114-108 and his two free throws at 1:26 made it a four-point game before the Rockets got over the line.
Kevin Durant scored 29 points and Curry added 25 with five 3s, nine rebounds and seven assists, but the Warriors had their five-game home winning streak snapped in a matchup of West powers who met in the 2018 Western Conference finals won in seven games by Golden State.
'You can come in here and win on a Monday night in February or a Tuesday night in November or December,' Paul said. 'But in the playoffs is when you have to beat a team four out of seven times. It's great tonight that we won this but in two days y'all will forget this. We all will.'
Early in the fourth, Golden State's Draymond Green exited the game with a sprained left ankle after grabbing at his foot in clear pain from stepping on teammate DeMarcus Cousins' foot.
There wasn't an immediate update on Green, who Curry said 'was in good spirits after the game so I'm assuming it's not anything serious.'
'He'll be back for the playoffs. That's the only thing we worry about here, right?' Durant said.
Paul handed out 11 of his season-high 17 assists in the first half to reach 9,000 for his career, helping Houston avoid a third straight road loss.
Cousins notched his third straight double-double with 13 points and a season-best 14 rebounds, while Klay Thompson had 20 points and six assists.
Curry's 3 in the final 30 seconds of the first half and a jumper to beat the buzzer by Andre Iguodala got Golden State to 61-54 at halftime after the two-time defending champions trailed by 20.
While Harden also has a strained neck, coach Mike D'Antoni said the reigning MVP probably could have played through that.
