Stephen Curry Given a Stern Lecture By His Mom After Hitting Rockets With F-Bomb Tirade: Meghan Markle Wouldn’t Be Offended, James Harden Better Be for Game 4

In the wake of what’s happened in South Texas, it’s hard to get too worked up over a mere basketball game. It’s understandable if people have trouble mustering outrage over the Houston Rockets getting blown out by the Golden State Warriors after Santa Fe.

Even a whopping 41-point defeat — the worst playoff loss in Rockets franchise history — does not seem so egregious.

As Rockets point guard Chris Paul put it on Friday, these NBA playoffs are “minor” when cast into the world of another horrific school shooting.

So yes, the Houston Rockets lost by more points than any 65-win NBA team has ever lost by in a playoff game on Sunday night. The final’s Warriors 126, Rockets 85 — essentially the third-straight runaway in this uber-anticipated Western Conference Finals. Maybe, we will finally get an actual good game in this series — a game decided in the final five minutes — on Tuesday night in Oakland.

That certainly didn’t happen in Game 3 Sunday. On this night, Stephen Curry’s mom offered more resistance to the NBA’s 3-point game changer than the Rockets did. Curry’s mom scolded him by text in the aftermath of his return to superstardom. Steph’s major offense?

Turning to the rollicking Oracle Arena crowd and screaming, “This is my f****** house!” in the midst of a third quarter spree that saw him score 18 points in less than 10 minutes.

Sonya Curry — Stephen Curry’s mother — did not like seeing her devout Christian son acting like that on national TV so she let him know before he even made his way to his postgame media session, as first reported by ESPN.

“I blacked out,” Curry says, almost sheepishly of the outburst, in a press conference televised on NBA TV.

If only Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni could have been so lucky. D’Antoni didn’t black out. He just watched in agony.

“Played soft, actually,” D’Antoni says describing the Rockets in his own press conference.

In truth, the Rockets did not look soft as much as they appeared overwhelmed by the moment. Houston was in position to take back control of this series early. The Rockets jumped out to an 8-4 advantage. Curry missed six of his first seven 3-pointers, continuing his funk from the first two games of the series.

But even as D’Antoni urged the Rockets to “not let go of the rope” in timeouts, James Harden and Chris Paul never truly attacked. That professor from Dead Poets Society would have been aghast. Seize the day? The Rockets barely even seemed to realize a day was happening.

“We weren’t as aggressive as we needed to be,” Harden says at the interview dais.

This has left the Rockets on the brink of seeing their season of supersized heights end with a quick, quiet thump. The 41 point playoff loss does not have to define this team.But it will if Harden and Paul cannot find a way to dominate Game 4 the way Curry and Draymond Green completely dominated Game 3.

If the Rockets come home for Game 5 Thursday night trailing 3-1 in the series, this is over. This isn’t 2016 and these Rockets do not have LeBron James and Kyrie Irving both at the peak of their powers. No one is coming back from 3-1 down to this Warriors team.

It’s win one game — or forever be considered dopes.

Rockets Laughed At

If this series ends in five, Charles Barkley will not be the only one laughing at the Rockets. It is shocking how completely unable Houston appears to be able to keep up with the Golden State once it gets out running in the third quarter. The Warriors look like the Showtime Lakers. Only instead of James Worthy dunks off Magic Johnson bounce passes, Curry is racing to the corners to hit triples off Draymond Green finds.

“His three is like someone else’s dunk,” Green says of Curry’s energy jolts from deep.

The Rockets during all this? They might as well be one of those offensively-challenged Knicks teams coached by Jeff Van Gundy back in the day.

This is a Mike D’Antoni offense? Really?

Of course, all will be forgiven with a Game 4 Rockets win. Houston’s still the underdog in the series if that happens. But at least this showcase series actually will be a series.

“It’s a huge game,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr says of Tuesday night’s Game 4 in Oakland in his own press conference. “It’s the swing game of the series. We’re right where we want to be.”

Curry is feeling comfortable again. The Rockets let him get going to the tune of 35 points and one F-bomb. Mom may be upset, but hey Meghan Markle is probably be fine with it. Sorry Sonya Curry. Rockets fans are more worried about their own star. When is James Harden going to be the best player on the floor in a game in these Western Conference Finals?

He was close in Game 1, but Kevin Durant was definitely better — and you could argue Klay Thompson was too. Now, Harden’s run out of time to wait. It’s Game 4 or never.

It’s only basketball. It’s only an escape. But it might as well be a good one.