Chris Paul’s bench unit carries, Steph Curry ices Warriors road win vs. Rockets

HOUSTON — In Chris Paul’s first career game off the bench, it was primarily his second unit that fueled the Warriors’ 106-95 win over the Houston Rockets on Sunday night in Houston.  Steph Curry helped put to rest a Rockets’ fourth-quarter rally with four straight 3-pointers late to ice the win.

Curry broke free against longtime foe Dillon Brooks, who was defending him all game. He taunted Brooks after dicing him up one-on-one for his third 3-pointer of the frame.

“We know what he’s about and his reputation,” Curry told NBC Sports Bay Area about the Warriors’ former Memphis adversary. “I don’t get caught up in that. I just play basketball. So obviously you let the game do the talking.

“There’s a lot of history with him particularly. End of the day, you just hoop. And the results speak for themselves. I like to have fun, especially in the fourth quarter when it’s winning time.”

The Warriors trailed by three when Curry went to the bench midway through the first quarter. By the time he returned four-plus minutes into the second quarter, Paul and the second unit had given the Warriors a 39-26 lead, and they took a 10-point advantage into the half. The bench unit outscored Houston’s reserves 41-21 in the game.

Coach Steve Kerr compared Paul’s sacrifice to Andre Iguodala accepting a bench role in 2014.

“When I talked to him this morning about it, he just nodded his head and said, Let’s go get ‘em,’ ” Kerr said. “Like, not even a big deal.”

Curry finished with 24 points on 6-of-14 from 3, including 14 points in the fourth quarter.

Klay Thompson still carried the scoring, particularly in the first half, scoring 19 points on 5-of-10 from 3 (7-12 from the field). Gary Payton II had 15 points, including a trio of 3-pointers. Jonathan Kuminga had nine points and Paul added six points with seven assists.

“We’ll have that advantage all year, it’s something that will be huge for our team,” Draymond Green said of the bench unit.

In his season debut, Green had five rebounds, five assists and four points in 21 minutes. He was on a minutes restriction returning from his ankle sprain. Green shook off some rust in the first half, but fell into a groove in the second half.

“I haven’t played basketball in six months, so it felt good to make plays,” Green said.

Paul’s 1,216-game regular season starting streak was the longest to start a career since the 1970-71 season (when this stat was first recorded), according to Elias Sports Bureau. It’s also the fifth-longest streak in NBA history after Karl Malone (1,442), Kevin Garnett (1,424), John Stockton (1,255) and Reggie Miller (1,244.)

The Warriors’ next stop is Monday in New Orleans to complete their first of 15 back-to-backs this season. Then they return home to play the Sacramento Kings before embarking on a four-game road trip to Oklahoma City, Cleveland, Detroit and Denver to play the reigning champion Nuggets.