Daryl Morey: Rockets 'Got Our Ass Kicked' in Game 2 Loss vs. Warriors

Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey told Sam Amick of The Athletic that his team "got our ass kicked" in its Game 2 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday.

"Game 2 was tough," Morey told Amick. "They outplayed us. We got our ass kicked, and we're going to have to come back in Game 3. We're excited for Saturday. As [head coach] Mike [D'Antoni] would say, 'It's pretty close to a must-win.' He always says, 'Well, the only must-win is if you're actually eliminated.'"

Golden State now leads Houston 2-0 in their best-of-seven Western Conference second-round playoff series.

Morey continued:

"But given the history of teams that go down [3-0 in a seven-game series], it's not [good]. Someone's going to come back from that someday, but I would prefer that we don't challenge that one or see if we can do it."

As Amick mentioned, no NBA team has ever come back from down 3-0 to win a seven-game series. Three teams have fought back to tie the series at three, per Andrew Mahoney of the Boston Globe, but none have won.

Morey finished his thoughts on the matter thusly:

"Game 2 was a very well-officiated game, and like I said [before], they just kicked our ass. The game was actually not as close as the score. They beat us real good, and we have to respond in a much better way."

The Rockets only lost 115-109, but the Warriors led wire to wire in their six-point win. Golden State led by as much as 12 in the fourth quarter before hanging on for the victory.

The Warriors have had the Rockets' number in the postseason since 2014 with a 14-5 record. The Rockets have found more success against Golden State since adding point guard Chris Paul in 2017 (8-8 including the regular season and playoffs). However, the Rockets haven't been able to break through in this year's postseason just yet.

"They're putting just an unbelievable five on the floor against us to start the game—and I think maybe historically, one of the best five, if not the best five [ever], if you look at their overall net rating," Morey said regarding the Warriors' lineups. "People want to make it about our offense struggling against (them), but they can make anyone look bad. And they did make us look bad in Game 2 for sure."

Houston has a chance to steer the series momentum in its favor when it hosts Game 3 on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. ET. ABC will televise the matchup.