Just 24 hours after suffering a rare blowout, the short-handed Golden State Warriors changed their game plan and result.
Klay Thompson fired in six triples en route to 38 points, while Draymond Green picked up his league-leading fifth triple-double of the season on Thursday, carrying the defending NBA Champions - minus injured Stephen Curry - to a 114-110 road victory over the Houston Rockets.
The Warriors took it on the chin in Wednesday's embarrassing 114-91 loss to the host Dallas Mavericks, as Curry missed the contest to nurse a lower left leg bruise.
The reigning league MVP was out again but the resilient Warriors rebounded to avoid back-to-back losses for the first time this season.
"We're the NBA defending champions," Warriors interim head coach Luke Walton explained.
"You lose by 25-30 points or whatever it was and you expect a much stronger performance out of all our guys the next night. That was a championship effort for the guys who were able to play."
Green had 10 points 11 rebounds and a career-best 16 assists, while Andre Iguodala threw in a season-high 20 points for the Warriors (30-2) playing without Curry, starting forward Harrison Barnes, along with key reserves Festus Ezeli and Leandro Barbosa.
"We're down four guys and about 60 points but other guys stepped up," Green said. "Everybody was big. That's what it's about."
Without Curry and his league-best 30 points per game, the Warriors slowed down their normally up-tempo style and it paid off.
Golden State trailed 80-78 with two minutes left in the third quarter before going on a 12-2 period-ending run behind triples from Iguodala and Thompson to go ahead 90-82.
The Warriors opened up a 99-87 cushion with just under 10 minutes left but the Rockets weren't done. A 15-6 run capped off by a James Harden jumper pulled the hosts to within 105-102 with 4:53 remaining.
Golden State responded, though. Iguodala soared in for a fast-break layup and fed Andrew Bogut for an alley-oop dunk to ignite an 8-0 run.
Thompson knocked down his final two baskets and the Warriors had their seventh straight win in the series.
Harden had 30 points to pace Houston (16-18) while Dwight Howard finished with 21 and 13 rebounds.
Elsewhere the Detroit Pistons beat Minnesota Timberwolves 115-90 with Andre Drummond scoring 23 points with 18 rebounds while Kentavious Caldwell-Pope netted 12 of his 22 in a decisive 37-20 fourth quarter. Karl-Anthony Towns topped Minnesota (12-21) with 22 points while Andrew Wiggins added 21.
Also Milwaukee Bucks downed Indiana Pacers 120-116; LA Clippers edged New Orleans Pelicans 95-89; Oklahoma City Thunder toughed out a 110-106 win over Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz had too much in the tank for Portland Trail Blazers, 109-96.
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