Vittorio Tafur, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, December 15, 2005 The Warriors shoot 3-pointers and when they're not shooting 3-pointers, they dream about shooting 3-pointers. And when they can't sleep and turn on the TV, they watch video of themselves shooting 3-pointers. On Wednesday, Golden State made a season-high 15 3-pointers and looked well on its way to a win over the Houston Rockets, leading by 11 with four minutes to go. But the Rockets outscored the Warriors 16-5 over the final 3:58 to send the game into overtime and then stole the win 111-105 in front of 18,257 shocked fans at the Arena in Oakland. Yao Ming led the Rockets with 30 points and 16 rebounds and, while the Warriors fired from outside, Houston dominated inside, outrebounding Golden State 61-32. Houston scored on seven of its eight possessions in overtime, with the 7-foot-6 Yao scoring the first four points. ''We had a great third quarter and it looked like we had control of the game,'' Warriors coach Mike Montgomery said. ''Yao made shots over us and swallowed up our big guys on the rebounding end.'' Jason Richardson scored 28 points and Baron Davis added 27 for the Warriors. Troy Murphy had 19 points, but the power forward's two rebounds in 42 minutes might be the bigger stat. ''We should have had this one,'' Murphy said. ''We let it slip away.'' The Warriors (13-9), who lost for the third time in four games, start a five-game road trip in Toronto on Friday. The Rockets (8-12) have won four of five, including their first three stops on a West Coast road trip. ''After I made two shots in overtime, I knew they would come to double-team me earlier,'' Yao said. ''It was a very big win for us (because) it was mentally tough.'' Derek Fisher forced two turnovers in the final minute of regulation, including one on Houston guard David Wesley with 5.9 seconds left, and made two free throws with 5.6 seconds left to put Golden State up 98-95. But Rockets rookie Luther Head drilled a 3-pointer from the left side with 2.7 seconds left to send the game into overtime. Golden State jacked up a season-high 37 3-pointers and seemingly took control with a 15-0 run late in the third quarter. Richardson had 13 in the third. Maybe tired from their overtime win in Seattle the night before, the Warriors walked the ball up the court in the first half, were outshot 58 to 38 percent, outrebounded 26-14 and only found themselves down 55-47 at the break. But they quickly tied it with an 8-0 run to start the second half. The Warriors would fall back by six again, 66-60, but that's when they made their push. Richardson nailed a 3-pointer, scored on a fast break and hit another 3-pointer with 4:40 to go in the third to give the Warriors a 68-66 lead. It was their first lead since they were up 14-13. After a long Derek Fisher two-pointer, Andris Biedrins dunked over Yao with 2:56 left for a six-point lead. Thirty seconds later, Davis swished a 3-pointer to make it 75-66. ''Once we started to run and defend a little bit in the second half, things were going our way,'' Montgomery said. The Rockets' drought lasted 4:54 and included five missed shots and four turnovers. It took Golden State awhile, but they finally made Houston look slow and tired. The Warriors' plan going in was to push the tempo, as the Rockets are primarily a half-court team. Golden State loves to run anyway, while Yao, 39-year-old backup center Dikembe Mutombo, 35-year-old point guard David Wesley, gimpy shooting guard Derek Anderson and lumbering power forward Juwan Howard would rather stand around, pass and shoot. Well, Golden State carried out its strategy for all of three minutes. Davis was shot out of a cannon at the opening tip, scoring all of the Warriors' points for a 9-5 lead 2:52 into the game. Davis followed up Tuesday's game-winning 3-pointer in Seattle with a 3-pointer, a layup, a nasty reverse dunk off an alley-oop from Richardson and two free throws. And then Golden State took a breath. For about an hour. The Warriors started jogging with the Rockets and watched Yao exploit his eight-inch height advantage over Adonal Foyle. Yao made five of his first six shots and finished with 10 points and seven rebounds in the first quarter. Yao's spin move with 6:29 left in the first quarter gave Houston its first lead at 13-12 and Foyle his second foul. The subsequent free throw made it 14-12 and Anderson's 3-pointer early in the second quarter put the Rockets up 29-20. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/12/15/SPGM9G8GA61.DTL
