HOUSTON -- Stephen Curry sat on the bench with his head in his hands, facing another injury that could derail Golden State's playoff run.
The Warriors felt bad for the reigning MVP, but instead of sulking about their misfortune, they responded with a huge third quarter to pull away from the Houston Rockets and cruise to a 121-94 victory on Sunday that gave them a 3-1 lead in the first-round playoff series.
"When you have a team that is as together as ours is and cares about each other like ours does, you tend to pick up the fight a little bit," Coach Steve Kerr said. "Our guys sensed that we needed to come together."
Soon after half of the vaunted Splash Brothers dejectedly limped to the locker room, the other one kept the three-pointers raining down. Klay Thompson made four of his seven three-pointers in the third as the Warriors made a franchise playoff-record eight in that quarter en route to an NBA playoff-record 21.
"Let's not fool ourselves. When you hit the shots we're hitting, things are going to go your way," Draymond Green said.
James Harden was disgusted with Houston's play in the third quarter.
"Terrible way, terrible way, terrible way to lose ... just a terrible quarter and that's what gave the game away," Harden said.
Curry returned after missing two games with a sprained right ankle, but did not play in the second half after spraining his right knee on the final play of the second quarter. He'll have an MRI today.
Golden State used a 41-point third quarter to take control of the game. The Warriors bested the NBA record they shared for 3s in a playoff game -- set last year against these Rockets -- when Brandon Rush made one from the top of the key with about 2 1/2 minutes left.
Golden State hosts Game 5 on Wednesday.
"I was trying to raise our level of intensity," said Thompson, who finished with 23 points. "When you play with emotion and play for your teammates, you can really get going. If we have that same emotion and intensity on Wednesday, we should be successful."
Dwight Howard led Houston with 19 points and 15 rebounds. Harden had 18 points, 10 assists and 7 steals.
"When the moment called for us to raise our intensity level, we dropped our guard," Houston Coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. "When their guy went down, you could see the intent in their guys' eyes. The moment we needed to match their intensity, we didn't do it."
Andre Iguodala added a season-high 22 points and Green finished with 18.
Curry slid awkwardly to the court while defending on the last play before halftime and immediately grabbed his knee. He got up and looked to have trouble putting weight on it before jogging with a limp to the locker room. He came out with the team after halftime, but sat on the bench for most of the warmup time. After talking with coaches, he returned to the locker room.
The Warriors didn't miss a beat without him and led by four with about 8½ minutes left in the third quarter before making five three-pointers in the next three minutes to fuel a 17-7 run that pushed the lead to 83-69.
Thompson hit another three-pointer soon after that and the Warriors scored the last eight points of the quarter to lead 97-76 entering the fourth.
Curry struggled to find his rhythm early after his two-game layoff. He was 2 of 9, including 1 of 7 on three-pointers and had 5 turnovers before he was injured. He finished with six points.
Houston kept pace early behind dominant inside play by Howard, who had 14 points and 10 rebounds as the teams were tied at halftime.
"We should have played with the same energy that we did in the first half," Howard said. "When plays didn't go our way, we got upset and got a little frustrated."
The Warriors, who set an NBA record with 73 victories in the regular season, bounced back after Thursday's loss to avoid losing two consecutive games for the first time this season. They were the first NBA team to not lose two games in a row and also the first team to go an entire season without losing to the same team twice.
EASTERN CONFERENCE
CAVALIERS 100, PISTONS 98
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Kyrie Irving scored 20 of his 31 points in the second half, and the Cleveland Cavaliers finished off a four-game sweep of the Detroit Pistons.
The Cavs advance to the second round to play either Atlanta or Boston. LeBron James had 22 points for Cleveland, but it was Irving who made the biggest shots all night. His midcourt buzzer beater put the Cavs up 81-78 after the third quarter, and with Cleveland clinging to a one-point lead in the final minute, he calmly sank a three-pointer from the right wing with 42 seconds remaining.
Detroit still had a chance at the end, but Reggie Jackson’s wild shot at the buzzer was off the mark.
Marcus Morris led Detroit with 24 points, but the Pistons lost to Cleveland for the 12th consecutive game in the postseason, equaling an NBA record. Detroit has also lost 10 playoff games in a row overall. Its most recent postseason appearance before this one was in 2009, and the Pistons were swept by Cleveland in the first round that year, too.
Sports on 04/25/2016