Curry hurts knee but Warriors beat Rockets 121-94 in Game 4

HOUSTON — Stephen Curry sat on the bench with his head in his hands, facing another injury that could derail Golden State's playoff run.

The Warriors felt bad for the reigning MVP, but instead of sulking about their misfortune, they responded with a huge third quarter to pull away from the Houston Rockets and cruise to a 121-94 victory on Sunday that gave them a 3-1 lead in the first-round playoff series.

"When you have a team that is as together as ours is and cares about each other like ours does, you tend to pick up the fight a little bit," coach Steve Kerr said. "Our guys sensed that we needed to come together."

Soon after half of the vaunted Splash Brothers dejectedly limped to the locker room, the other one kept the 3-pointers raining down. Klay Thompson made four of his seven 3s in the third as the Warriors made a franchise playoff-record eight in that quarter en route to an NBA playoff-record 21.

"Let's not fool ourselves. When you hit the shots we're hitting, things are going to go your way," Draymond Green said.

James Harden was disgusted with Houston's play in the third quarter.

"Terrible way, terrible way, terrible way to lose ... just a terrible quarter and that's what gave the game away," Harden said.

Curry returned after missing two games with a sprained right ankle, but did not play in the second half after spraining his right knee on the final play of the second quarter. He'll have an MRI on Monday.

Golden State used a 41-point third quarter to take control of the game. The Warriors bested the NBA record they shared for 3s in a playoff game — set last year against these Rockets — when Brandon Rush made one from the top of the key with about 2 1/2 minutes left.

Golden State hosts Game 5 on Wednesday.

"I was trying to raise our level of intensity," said Thompson, who finished with 23 points. "When you play with emotion and play for your teammates, you can really get going. If we have that same emotion and intensity on Wednesday, we should be successful."

Dwight Howard led Houston with 19 points and 15 rebounds. Harden had 18 points, 10 assists and seven steals.

"When the moment called for us to raise our intensity level, we dropped our guard," Houston coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. "When their guy went down, you could see the intent in their guys' eyes. The moment we needed to match their intensity, we didn't do it."

The Warriors, who set an NBA record with 73 wins in the regular season, bounced back after Thursday's loss to avoid losing two games straight for the first time this season. They were the first team in NBA history to not lose two games in a row and also the first team to go an entire season without losing to the same team twice.