Grüße und Vorstellung » ght start. Wood also won

OAKLAND Zach Zenner Jersey , Calif. — Two veteran coaches had a similar message for their teams on the eve of Game 4 of the Western Conference finals between the Houston Rockets and Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night.

“It starts 0-0,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said of Game 4. “It doesn’t matter if we won (the previous game) by one or 41.”

In fact, the Warriors did win Game 3 on Sunday by 41 points, 126-85, to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven.

The margin of victory not only was the largest in Warriors postseason history, but the margin of defeat also was the biggest ever for a team that won 65 or more games in the regular season.

Stephen Curry, who had missed 17 of his 20 3-point attempts in the first 10 quarters of the series, sent the Warriors’ home crowd into a frenzy by making 4 of 5 in the second half Sunday en route to 35 points.

It was a performance that brought back memories to Kerr of the Boston Celtics’ Danny Ainge.

“I don’t remember what I had for breakfast, but I remember what Danny Ainge said 30 years ago,” Kerr warned. “They won a playoff game by 40, and he said La'el Collins Jersey , ‘This is not the Tour de France. You don’t start with a big lead because it’s not based on time or how much you won by.’

“It’s the NBA, so it’s 2-1 (in the series). So doesn’t matter what happened (Sunday). We have to be ready for a great team that’s going to come out like they did in Game 2, attacking, hair on fire and taking the force to us, and we have to be ready for that.”

The Rockets’ margin of defeat Sunday was almost identical to the number of fewer points scored by Eric Gordon, P.J. Tucker and Trevor Ariza in Game 3 than in Game 2.

Key members of the James Harden/Chris Paul supporting cast — Gordon, Tucker and Ariza — combined for 23-of-33 shooting and contributed 68 points to a 127-105 series-evening home win in Game 2.

On Sunday, they went a combined 8 of 24 and 23 points in the blowout loss.

Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni wasn’t singling out anyone when he assessed the Game 3 performance.

“We didn’t bring our best game,” he observed. “But I’m hoping for the best (in Game 4). I hope we play great and them bad. Never know.”

The loss was the Rockets’ fourth of the postseason. They rebounded with wins after each of the first three, romping by an average of 20.7 points.

This time, they’ll be up against a Warriors team that has won an NBA-record 16 straight playoff games at home.

D’Antoni went as far as to say the pressure is on the Warriors Lamar Miller Jersey , who would hand the home-court advantage back to Houston with a loss in Game 4.

“I hope so,” Kerr reacted to his rival’s statement. “We’re much better when the pressure’s on. He’s right. We’re at home, so if they win, they have home-court advantage. So, yeah, pressure’s on us. It’s kind of on them, too.”

Andrew Heaney was a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers for a few hours early in his major league career.

Heaney is still hoping to convince their front office they should have given him a longer look five years ago. He’ll get another opportunity Sunday evening when he takes the mound for the Los Angeles Angels in the series finale against the Dodgers at Angel Stadium.

The Dodgers (48-40) gave up two runs in the ninth inning and lost the series opener 3-2 on Friday night, then held on for a 3-1 win against the Angels (45-45) on Saturday.

Heaney was traded from the Miami Marlins to the Dodgers at the winter meetings Dec. 12, 2014, but a few hours later the Dodgers dealt him to the Angels for popular second baseman Howie Kendrick.

Heaney had two chances to beat the Dodgers during the 2015 season, but lost both games. He gave up two runs and four hits in 5 1/3 innings of a 3-1 loss at Dodger Stadium on Aug. 1 of that season. Five weeks later at Angel Stadium Ricky Wagner Jersey , he gave up five runs and six hits in five innings of a 6-4 loss.

Heaney had Tommy John surgery in June 2016 and made only six starts over the next two seasons.

Heaney (4-6, 3.94) had a solid month of May this season, posting a 2-3 record and 2.41 ERA in six starts. He had a winning mark of 2-1 in June, but his ERA dipped to 4.45 for the month. In his only start in July, he gave up three runs and five hits in seven innings at the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday, taking the loss in the 4-1 defeat.

“It’s sort of been the same old story for a little while, just sort of the big innings where I let it kind of build,” Heaney told reporters after his latest outing. “It’s something where I need to come out and establish earlier, kind of get ahead, and all the other same stuff we always talk about.”

Heaney will be opposed by Dodgers left-hander Alex Wood, who will be aiming to win his fifth straight start. Wood also won all five appearances in May of last season on his way to an 11-0 start.

Wood (5-5 Eric Ebron Jersey , 3.84) probably didn’t expect to have a chance to go over .500 by early July after dropping to 0-4 on May 15.

“Winning is just nice,” Wood told Sportsnet after his latest start, a 17-1 win against the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday. “Four in a row is nice, especially where I was after that three-start stretch. So I feel good, just trying to keep moving forward and looking towards the future. Hopefully, we’ll keep swinging the bats well and play well going into the All-Star break.”

The Angels are the only American League West team Wood has not faced in his major league career.

He struggled in his only interleague start this season, giving up seven runs and seven hits over 3 2/3 innings in a 16-6 loss to the visiting Oakland A’s on April 11.
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