The Golden State Warriors were missing their defensive anchor in Andrew Bogut, but Thursday’s game against the Houston Rockets was one they couldn’t afford to lose.
Heading into the contest, Houston was the only Western Conference team the Warriors had failed to beat this season. Just as importantly, a win against them would bring Golden State within four games of the third seed – still well within reach with 27 games left to play.
With Bogut out of the lineup, Jermaine O’Neal was forced into the starting lineup. He had a tough matchup against Dwight Howard, but more than held his own and forced Howard to just four-of-13 shooting from the field.
O’Neal actually had one of the stranger moments in recent memory against the Rockets as a member of the Phoenix Suns last season when he somehow goal-tended James Harden’s 3-point attempt at the buzzer to lose the game:
This prompted the official twitter account of the Rockets to go into sarcastic mode about how O’Neal may help them again with the Warriors:
We can always count on Jermaine O’Neal for a timely goal tending.
— Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) February 21, 2014
Instead, O’Neal provided a game-saving block against Chandler Parsons’ dunk attempt at the rim with 23 seconds left in overtime:
Wow. Jermaine O’Neal. Warriors up 3 with 15.9 left.
— Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) February 21, 2014
Warriors won the game 102-99. Jinx.
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James Park is the chief blogger of Sheridan Hoops. You can find him on twitter @SheridanBlog.