Warriors pounded by Rockets 105-83

Lesson learned?

"I think we learned the lesson before," Jackson said flatly. "You've got to do something about it, and we did not."

The Warriors shot a season-low 36 percent and misfired on 14 of 16 3-point attempts. Jackson was disheartened by the 22 turnovers, and Curry pointed out that the poor shooting carried over on the defensive end.

"You have a tendency to dwell on that as opposed to getting stops and letting that lead to easy offense," said Curry, who had 22 points through three but sat the entire fourth quarter. "We gave them extra possessions, especially early in the game to get their confidence going."

The Rockets paraded through the paint in the first half, with Terrence Jones repeatedly getting the better of David Lee, and Dwight Howard taking advantage of a Warriors front line that was ravaged by foul trouble. Andrew Bogut picked up two fouls in the first 8:28 and had five before the third quarter was even half over. Backup Jermaine O'Neal had two fouls after just 47 seconds of guarding Howard.

The first-year Rocket is notoriously bad from the charity stripe, but Howard had more free throws (five) in the first quarter than the Warriors had field goals (four). Howard already had a double-double early in the second quarter and shook off Jackson's third-quarter Hack-A-Howard strategy, finishing with 22 points and 18 rebounds.

The Warriors gave up 54 points in the paint and 25 more at the free throw line. The somber locker room housed plenty of players staring at ugly individual stat lines. Klay Thompson had five points on 2-of-10 shooting, and Harrison Barnes was just 5 for 16 from the field. Bogut had four points and five rebounds opposite of Howard, and Lee managed just seven shots and 11 points on a quiet night. The normally sharpshooting Warriors failed to make at least five 3-pointers for the first time this season, and also set a new low in assists (10).

"We've just been bad," Jackson said. "Across the board."

For the second straight game, the problems were acute early, but Curry said "there's no magic formula" for fixing the first-half struggles. "We know what it is," he said. "Play harder, play better, especially on the road."

That last word provides one saving grace for the Warriors, who have no time to dwell on the ugly loss. To a man, the Warriors said they're glad they'll be back on a court Saturday night in Memphis. Jackson was hopeful his group would write a different story after the next tipoff.

"We're well aware of what took place in that first half," he said. "We dug ourselves another hole. We've got to be better."