With Gordon's heroic performance and Paul's three-pointer at the buzzer, the Rockets maintained their 3-point lead.
The fourth quarter started quickly, with the two teams competing on the bench first.
In terms of substitutes, the two teams are about the same strength. The Warriors have a slight advantage. The reason is that the Warriors substitutes have been working together for a long time, have better tacit understanding, and have experienced the finals.
Four minutes later, the two teams were tied.
The Rockets called a timeout. After the timeout, the two teams started the game and started the final battle.
The Rockets' strategy has not changed much, and it is impossible to change. That is to constantly open up singles. After Harden beats Paul, he plays, and after Paul beats Harden, he plays.
Of course, Harden plays a lot more than Paul.
After adapting in several games, the Warriors have become more and more understanding on the defensive end. Harden and Paul did not have many successful military training scenes with Curry.
Curry moves quickly, and the other four Warriors have good defensive awareness and good physical fitness, and they are all able to switch defenses to help defend, so Curry rarely needs to switch defenses.
Even if you switch to the top of the arc, a delay resistance can solve most situations.
If it doesn't work, then switch to defense, since there won't be much time left to attack anyway.
Curry just expands and doesn't give up three-pointers. Harden and Paul just rush in and others can cover the defense!
Anyway, the Warrior’s death speed is fast enough!
Finally, after insisting on the strategy against Harden for a whole game, the Warriors finally got something: Harden obviously couldn't keep up with his physical strength after playing two consecutive games!
After all, Harden consumes a lot of energy on both offense and defense, and it would be difficult for anyone to replace him, let alone Harden, whose willpower is not that good.
As soon as his physical strength dropped, Harden's shooting percentage dropped, and he became even less willing to break through inside.
Deng Fang had anticipated this a long time ago. Yingodala and others stared at Harden, not giving him a chance to step back for a three-pointer!
It forces you to push inward and allows you to score points in a more strenuous way!
Others are no longer helping to defend, so don’t even think about passing the ball!
The weaker your physical strength is, the harder I will make you use to score points!
As soon as Harden's shooting percentage dropped, the Warriors' counterattack came!
Harden burst in and missed a layup, but the Warriors immediately counterattacked. Clay hit an open three-pointer!
Harden rushed in and made a mistake. The Warriors made another fast break. Curry made an unguarded layup in the frontcourt and scored two points!
Harden failed to make a shot against Ying Guodala, and the long rebound was grabbed by the Warriors. Curry dribbled the ball to the frontcourt, stopped two meters away from the three-point line, and made an emergency three-point shot. The basketball was hollow!
In less than 2 minutes, the Warriors went on an 8-0 run and quickly opened up the score.
D'Antoni quickly called a timeout.
After the timeout, the Rockets brought in Gordon, replaced Capela, and started a purely small lineup.
Tucker plays the fifth position and is smaller than the Warriors lineup!
This has two benefits, one is to add a ball-handling scorer, and the other is to increase the speed of the defensive end and not give the Warriors a fast break opportunity.
But the Warriors are gaining momentum, and it's useless no matter how hard D'Antoni tries!
As long as Curry finds the feeling and the Splash Brothers miss the shot, the Warriors' offense will be invincible!
If you come out, I'll attack you; if you don't, I'll kill you!
Gordon broke through and scored two points. Durant and Curry caught the ball and shot after a pick-and-roll, and made a steady three-pointer.
Paul succeeded in the mid-range shot after the pick-and-roll. Curry and Green picked and rolled. The Rockets switched defense a little slower. Curry raised his hand and threw, and the basketball went hollow into the net.
Harden broke through and made a free throw and scored two points. Curry and Green picked and rolled. The Rockets began to attack Curry, who was feeling hot. Curry passed the ball to Green. Green broke into the paint and faced Tucker who was covering the defense and passed the ball to the bottom.
Kelai from the corner, Kelai opened his hand and hit, another three-pointer!
The score difference immediately reached double digits!
The Rockets called another timeout. After the timeout, the Rockets clarified their strategy and resolutely switched defenses.
But Curry, who had found his touch, and Durant, who was always online, immediately told D'Antoni that he was wrong:
Curry made an emergency stop and hit a three-pointer when Tucker switched defenses!
Durant succeeded in making a pull-up against Paul who was switching defense!
Curry made a fake move to shake Gordon away, drove to the basket and scored two points for a layup.
…
Seeing the point difference getting wider and wider, D'Antoni couldn't do anything when he sat down.
People just get in through typing, what can you do?
My own star just can't score, is there any use in worrying?
Harden just can't keep up physically. It's useless to push him!
Soon, with more than 3 minutes left in the fourth quarter, the score difference reached 18 points!
Seeing that there was no hope, D'Antoni had no choice but to replace the main force and withdraw his troops.
In the end, the Warriors defeated the Rockets 119:98, and the series score became 3:1. The Warriors took the lead in getting the match point and were expected to advance.
Harden made 11 of 28 shots and 5 of 6 free throws throughout the game, scoring 29 points, 8 assists, 9 rebounds, and 7 turnovers.
Indeed, Harden scores a lot, but his high scores come in exchange for a high number of shots!
Indeed, Harden also sent out 8 assists, but for every assist he sent out, he made a turnover, which was very inefficient.
This does not take into account how many people Harden missed on the defensive end because he lost so many points!
Paul's side was similar. He made 9 of 20 shots, 3 of 4 free throws, and scored 24 points. He also had 5 assists, 6 rebounds, and 3 turnovers.
To put it bluntly, Paul is a weakened version of Harden, with fewer points, assists, and rebounds. His only advantage is that his shooting percentage is slightly higher.
Because the Warriors switched defenses endlessly, the Rockets made 8 of 27 three-pointers from outside, and their shooting percentage was very average.
On the other hand, 6 of the Warriors scored in double figures, and their three-point shooting percentage was as high as 40%!
Curry made 11 of 17 shots, 6 of 8 three-pointers, and scored 31 points, 7 assists, and 9 rebounds.
Durant made 10 of 19 shots and scored 28 points, 4 assists and 10 rebounds.
Clay made 4 of 7 three-pointers and scored 16 points and 6 rebounds.
Yingodala made 5 of 8 shots and scored 12 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists.
In addition to these statistics, the most important thing that Deng Fang cares about most is: under Yingodala's defense, Paul and Harden made a combined 3 of 11 shots when facing him, which is a very pitiful shooting rate!
Deng Fang proved one point with facts: As long as Ying Guodala is there, the Rockets have no chance, even if Paul is not injured!
In the fourth game of this series in history, the Warriors only lost by 3 points without Yingodala!
Could it be that Yingodala's role is only these 3 points?
Are the five hours of death that the Warriors are famous for so worthless?
You know, without the Yingodala Warriors, it would be impossible to come up with the Death Five, and this is what the Rockets want to see most!
Not to mention anything else, with Yingodala on the court, the physical exertion he exerts on Harden and Paul alone is worth 5 points!
Not to mention Yingodala's role in opening up space on the offensive end and his ability to organize and support!
Paul is more useful than Yingodala, but that is only reflected in his one-on-one ability.
If you consider the role of support, space opening and defense, Yingodala's role is not much smaller than Paul!
Facts have proved that it doesn't matter whether Paul is injured or not. As long as Ying Guodala is here and as long as no one from the Warriors is injured, the Rockets have no chance in this series, and no one has any chance!