What the hell was that Warriors fourth quarter?

Again, in a near repeat of Game 4, the Houston Rockets hang onto a late lead over the Golden State Warriors during Thursday’s Game 5. The final score was 98-94, and despite the Rockets’ inexplicable shooting woes, their defense was just good enough to disorientate Golden State and pull out the win.

Warriors fans will certainly see the game differently. In their eyes, I would imagine they saw a team that blew chance after chance after chance, and it’s hard to argue with them. Houston’s defense was sensational, but it also didn’t cause Kevin Durant’s absence, or several boneheaded turnovers, or any number of otherwise preventable situations.

Here were the four most glaring moments where Golden State missed golden opportunities in the final 12 minutes.

Durant didn’t turn it over, but he only took four shots and missed them all. He finished with two points, both accrued from the free throw line. That was it.

The Warriors didn’t run Durant in the pick-and-roll, either as a screener for Stephen Curry or as the ball handler. (Houston switched everything, of course, but Golden State didn’t even attempt getting them confused.) I can’t remember even one instance where Durant truly tried to push the ball in transition. When the Warriors did go to Durant, they sold out to him beating a mismatch in the post. Houston brought help, and it simply didn’t work often enough.

Kerr substituted in Cook late in the game, which made sense on paper, given Cook’s excellent three-point shooting during the regular season. But in the biggest moment of his life, the Rockets left him wide open and ...

He missed. Cook was 0-of-3 during the game in eight minutes, with all three shots coming from behind the arc and all three being relatively open. It’s hard to expect anything else, unfortunately.

With 13.2 left in the game and the Rockets hanging onto a perilous one-point advantage, Curry got loose and tossed up a floater while driving from the right side that clanked off the iron. Golden State had to foul, and Trevor Ariza split a pair, leading to this play:

With 3.4 seconds remaining, down 96-94, Curry advanced the ball to Draymond Green — for some unclear reason — who just straight up lost it. Eric Gordon came up with the ball, and was fouled, and iced the game at the line.

Incredibly, that’s how Houston won.