Klay takes issue with Eason shirt after key win

HOUSTON — Golden State Warriors players Draymond Green and Klay Thompson stood, faced the crowd in Houston and yelled, “Warrrriors, come out to play!”

The phrase was the same one Rockets forward Tari Eason wore on his shirt before Thursday’s game. But after the Warriors beat the Rockets 133-110 — a game with massive play-in implications — Eason exited the arena shirtless, with a vest and a big diamond chain on.

“That’s pretty lame, especially if you’re not even playing,” Thompson said. “It’s one thing if you are out there playing, out there competing and you can back it up. But you’re just going to be trolling from the sideline? What are you doing? The time we talk smack, we’re out there competing. That’s all I have to say about that.”

Green appreciated the smack-talk element of it all, but shared Thompson’s sentiment that if you are going to taunt, you have to back it up on the court. Eason has been shut down for the rest of the season with a benign growth on his lower leg bone that required surgery.

“I love it [but] if you’re going to say that, you got to play,” Green said. “You can’t come out and say that and not play. But I know what type of player he is. He welcomes all of that. He welcomes the challenge and welcomes the fight. … Hopefully next year he’ll say the same thing and we both won’t be fighting for the play-in, we’ll be fighting for the seeding.”

The Warriors’ win over the Rockets all but locked up at least a top-10 seed for Golden State, fending off Houston’s ferocious run to snatch it away.

On March 24, just a week and a half ago, Houston was one game behind Golden State in the standings after winning its eighth straight in what would become an 11-game win streak.

Now, the Warriors are up four games on the Rockets with six games left in the regular season. But because Golden State holds the season tiebreaker, it’s in effect five games.

“[Securing the top 10] allows you to now focus on what you can do to move up,” Green said. “When you’re just trying to solidify, you take everything step by step. The first step is to solidify ourselves a chance, give ourselves a chance. Once you get yourself a chance, it’s like what’s next? What’s the best chance we can give ourselves?”

Mathematically, the Rockets aren’t officially eliminated from the play-in.

For Houston to still make the play-in tournament it would either have to win five of its six final games and have the Warriors lose out, or win all six of its games and have Golden State drop at least five.

But the Warriors are playing some of their most cohesive basketball of the season, so the odds of them falling off that much are unlikely.

After stringing together five consecutive wins with a defensive backbone, it was the Warriors’ offense that led them in Houston. Thompson finished with 29 points on 11-of-15 shooting, including seven 3-pointers, while Stephen Curry also scored 29 points. Rookie center Trayce Jackson-Davis had a career-high 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting.

After Thursday’s win, the Warriors sit 1½ games behind the Los Angeles Lakers in ninth place, two games behind the Sacramento Kings in eighth and three behind the New Orleans Pelicans in seventh.

Coach Steve Kerr said the Warriors hope the teams above them in the standings tally up some losses to help Golden State move up. But the Warriors also know they have to help themselves out — especially with games against the Dallas Mavericks (in the first seed) and Lakers coming up.

“Whatever the motivation has been for each win individually — whether you are looking below or looking up — keep looking there,” Curry said. “It’s a matter of us maintaining this momentum because more than likely, it’s going to be you have to play one game to stay alive. I don’t care what anybody is looking at, but just keep looking at it, keep our focus on what we’ve been doing because the results have been able to show we’re locked in and motivated.”