Warriors, Rockets in West finals; Southampton beat Swansea 1-0

As the home crowd chanted his nickname – “CP3!” At the close of last year’s Finals, Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey was famously quoted as saying he’d have to “up his risk profile” if his team was to compete with Golden State. The Houston Rockets have won 15 of their last 17 home games. The point guard has been panned for failing to get past the second round in his nine previous trips to the postseason.

The team’s fortunes crashed when Mitchell aggravated a left foot injury with seven minutes to go in the game and hobbled to the locker room.

Kerr said in a way, Paul reminds him of Green because both of them are so intense and passionate about the game.

Green has also keyed a formidable Warriors defense that boasts the best defensive rating in the first two rounds of the playoffs. During that same period, Paul is 3-9 against Golden State. “Shit went bad real quick”.

The Paul-Harden-D’Antoni pairing couldn’t have gone smoother. Paul took more shots at the rim and more three-pointers than previous years, and while his percentage of shots from 16 feet to the three-point line decreased, his shots from 10-16 feet increased slightly, according to Basketball-Reference. Golden State are going to take their game to another level; can the Rockets do the same? “Got to go out there and play”. But now, you know, they got us. “He said, ‘You get out of the way.’ He had that look in his eyes”. If he can play 37 minutes in a playoff game, then I think he’s OK. If there was a single-defining fact of his career, that was it.

Barkley, who is not a fan of the Rockets, is notorious for his negative comments about his former team. Here’s to you, Chris Paul.

No. No, it’s not.

Meanwhile in Texas, Chris Paul scored 41 points as Houston made sure of their place in the conference finals. They opened with a 5-game series win over the eighth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves and followed that up with 5-game win over the fifth-seeded Utah Jazz.

With Stephen Curry back from a knee sprain and playing well enough to score 28 points in Game 5 versus the Pelicans, the Warriors deserve to enter the West finals as clear favorites.

The Jazz were without Ricky Rubio and Dante Exum because of hamstring injuries.

By the end of the series, the Jazz trainers must have been shaking their heads. He can step out and make threes. He had to be helped to the bench and was quickly taken to the locker room with the help of two people. The Donovan Mitchell single-hand slam in the fourth quarter over three Houston Rockets after rebounding his own missed jumper in Game 2 of the Jazz-Rockets semifinals. That’s a big-time performance.

Golden State defeats New Orleans 113-104, will face Houston in Western Conference finals.

“No disrespect, but we were just focused on us during the season and how we can get better every day”, Durant said. “Even the bank shot [on a three-pointer] – I mean, give me a break. We were just locked on what we wanted to do”. He looked exhausted to me after about eight minutes in the third, so I took him out around the 4 minute mark, then we played him the whole fourth I think. “Oh, I’m definitely about to get some rest”.