Houston Rockets will look to even up the series vs. the Warriors

The Houston Rockets have a chance to firmly put themselves in contention in this series tonight as they look to tie it up against the Warriors. Can they come out and do just that?

The Houston Rockets dug themselves a bit of a hole after dropping both the games in Oakland to begin the series. As such, they had to win four out of five against one of the best teams ever assembled.

They started that on Saturday night as they defeated the champs in overtime for their first win of the series. James Harden had a spectacular and clutch night for the Rockets, putting up 41 points and a dagger 3 to put the game out of reach.

It doesn’t get any easier from here, though. They still have to win three out of four against the Warriors and tonight is practically a must-win scenario. Falling behind 3-1, all Warriors jokes aside, would be a nightmare for the Rockets.

The Warriors after a loss

The Warriors are already an elite team, of course, but they get even better after a loss. So far this postseason, they are 2-0 after losing their previous game, winning by an average margin of 23 points against the Clippers.

Last year whenever they lost their first game to Houston in the Conference Finals, they came out and beat Houston by 41 (!!!) points in the next one. With a little more pressure this year for the Rockets, let’s hope they don’t let their guard down like that again.

Houston is the only team, though, to take two straight games from Golden State in the postseason during the Kevin Durant era. Last year, they won Games 4 and 5, something that would be very nice to repeat.

Still must win in Oakland

The Rockets winning tonight would make it only one required win on the road in a hostile environment to take the series, should they take care of business at home. That’s huge with the home court advantage that they have over there in Oakland.

The Clippers were able to take two from the Warriors on their home floor. While the Warriors might not have been as locked in as they should have been, it still was an impressive feat and showed that it could be done. The Rockets will need to emulate that when they head back to the Bay Area for Game 5. Hopefully, they will be doing so in a tied up series.