James Harden suffered a left eye laceration and a scratch to the left eye lid as the Rockets dropped game two of the Western Conference Seminfinal series against the Golden State Warriors 115-109 Tuesday night at Oracle Arena.
Harden was hit in the face by Draymond Green with 6:41 left in the first quarter while going up for a rebound. He missed the remainder of the first quarter and did not re-enter the game until 7:09 left before halftime. He still finished with 29 points on 9-of-19 shooting, seven rebounds and four assists, but turned the ball over six times.
The Rockets trailed the entire night with the Warriors scoring the game's first six points. Golden State took advantage of nine Rockets turnovers in the first quarter to take a 29-20 lead after 12 minutes. The Rockets closed to within 3 on Eric Gordon's fastbreak layup with 7:36 left in the first half, but Golden State scored the next six points and pushed its lead to 13 on Klay Thompson's three-pointer with 2:20 left before halftime, though Harden's step-back with 6.4 seconds left on the clock brought the Rockets within nine at the break.
The Rockets got within eight a couple of times after Kevin Durant opened the second half with a three, but Thompson knocked down back-to-back threes with less than five minutes left in the third quarter to give the Warriors their largest lead of the night, 15 points. Houston clawed back into the game by scoring the final eight points of the quarter.
In the final period, the Rockets got within three points twice, the second time coming when Clint Capela split a pair of free throws with 6:44 left to play, but Stepehen Curry answered with a three-pointer, starting an 8-0 Warriors burst. The Rockets would trim the lead to four, but that came with three seconds left on the clock.
The loss puts the Rockets in an 0-2 series hole with the series shifting to Toyota Center for game three Saturday night. The Rockets have lost nine straight series after trailing 0-2.
Chris Paul finished with 18 points, while Eric Gordon added 15.
The Rockets shot 46.8 percent from the field and connected on 17-of-40 three-pointers.
Durant's 29 points led the Warriors. Thompson scored 21 while Curry added 20. The Warriors grabbed 18 offensive rebounds, leading to 20 second chance points.