Some promising signs for Warriors: closed mouths and open teammates

Games against the Rockets approach a playoff emotionality, and the Rockets need the Warriors to cry-cry-cry.

Two. James Harden is a 50-point bomb with a short fuse, which didn’t get lit Wednesday. One reason: Harden didn’t reap a free-throw bonanza. He received nine foul shots, 2.3 below his average.

Early in the game, every time Harden went up for a 3-pointer, his defender, instead of going straight up, would slide to Harden’s left side, his shooting side, and contest the shot from there.

I’m guessing that was a plan. Assistant coach Ron Adams? Just a guess. Harden hit 2 of his dozen 3-point attempts.

By slipping to Harden’s left side, the defender has a better chance to contest the step-back/fall-back jumper. Anything to take Harden out of his game, which is to make contact with the defender in front of him, flopping and getting the whistle.

Fouls are Harden’s game. He is awarded an average of one free throw every 3.3 minutes he plays. Stephen Curry is awarded one free throw every 8.6 minute he plays. For every 2.2 shots Harden takes, he gets a free throw. Curry gets one free throw for every 4.9 shots he takes. And Curry gets touched.

Take away Harden’s free-throw game, or at least part of it, you undercut the soul of the Rockets.

Three. Cousins is coming on.

I was going to write something like, “Hey, maybe the Warriors are better without Kevin Durant,” who sat out the game with an ankle injury.

That’s pointless, because the Warriors won’t send Durant to the G League when he’s healthy. The more important variable is Cousins.

There were two questions about Cousins with the Warriors. How well he’d recover physically, and how he would fit in.

From what we’ve seen, and from what Kerr has told us, Cousins is a beautiful fit in the locker room. A good-natured, good-humored guy. Whatever problems he had at his previous NBA stops have disappeared, maybe because he finds himself in the midst of a group of super-talented, super-focused ballers who need him and accept him.

I don’t get the impression Cousins is playing for next season’s contract, but rather that he’s playing for his new brothers, reveling in the company he now keeps.

He has bought into the team concept. In the second quarter, Cousins drove the lane, was met by defenders and automatically thought about a kick-out pass to one of his 3-point-shooting teammates.

Sure enough, Cousins glimpsed a white jersey to his left and hit Stephen Curry, wide open in the corner. Only problem: Curry was out of the game. He was standing in front of the bench with a towel on his head.

You hit the open man, even when he’s not in the game, you are a team player.