HOUSTON -- In what symbolized Friday night for the Houston Rockets, James Harden, the master of the lob pass during his MVP-type season, sent one to Clint Capela, a man quite capable of converting such plays.

Capela missed the rim.

The Golden State Warriors came down to the other end and Stephen Curry hit a 3-pointer, his fifth of the game. Having seen enough, coach Mike D'Antoni called a timeout and started to clear the Rockets' bench with 3 minutes, 19 seconds left in the fourth quarter. The fans were also done for the evening, and quite a few headed for the exits just before the T-shirt giveaway at the Toyota Center.

Houston couldn't hit a shot, struggled with its offensive spacing, played poor defense and was soundly beaten by the Warriors, 125-108.

Montrezl Harrell and the rest of the Rockets' starters had trouble stopping the Warriors, who scored at least 30 points in each of the first three quarters. Troy Taormina/USA TODAY Sports

"None of us are happy," Harden said. "But it happens. So what's next? That's been our motto. We lost. This game doesn't count for more or less, and we got a game tomorrow and be prepared for it."

It was a much different Rockets team than the one we saw back in December, when Houston won a double-overtime thriller in Oakland, California. In the return match, Harden didn't see much room to maneuver because of the Warriors' constant double-teams. The Rockets also didn't hit shots, going 7-for-35 from 3-point range, including a dreadful 0-for-10 in the third quarter.

Golden State protected the rim with a force, as evidenced by its seven blocks, and closed out on the Rockets' shooters.

Harden took only 13 shots and missed all five of his 3-pointers, finishing with 17 points in 35 minutes.

Ryan Anderson returned from a two-game absence due to a stomach flu and lasted only nine minutes before leaving for the night. Anderson won't make the trip to Memphis for Saturday's game as he tries to recover. Playing with little energy, Anderson was slow to certain spots on the floor and thus unable to help Houston's offensive spacing when the Warriors made defensive switches. It forced the Rockets to take contested shots, and when they drove to the rim, Golden State defenders met them.

"We just missed a lot of shots everywhere and we had our chances," D'Antoni said. "We're down five at halftime and not playing well. So there's a lot of hope there and there's a lot of good things that I saw. There's a lot of things that we can do. We can get better. We still got a long season to go, and we know that they just set the bar. We've got to beat that [bar] right there and just see if we can."

D'Antoni said he reminded his team of that in his postgame chat. It might have been one of the more forceful talks he has had in a while with this group. The Rockets have played so well this season -- 33 victories at this stage -- that their quality wins shouldn't be ignored.

That said, the Rockets have lost four of their past six games, with a loss each to Memphis and now Golden State, two quality opponents.

D'Antoni pointed to fatigue playing a role: The Rockets had played nine games in 15 days, including three sets of back-to-back games, and after Saturday they'll have played four games in five nights.

"I'm sure every coach is saying this, [but] our schedule has been ridiculous," D'Antoni said. "It's been ridiculous. We started it by going to China [in preseason] and they've been pulling and been pushing. ... That's ridiculous what they're asking these guys [to do]."

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Getting Nene Hilario back for Memphis on Saturday should help. Capela, meanwhile, had his best game since returning from a fractured fibula three games ago, scoring 22 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.

Sam Dekker played well off the bench with 17 points and seven rebounds. Eric Gordon struggled, missing 12 of 14 shots from the field, including all seven from 3. Trevor Ariza scored 12 points on 12 shots, yet the Warriors took charge by hitting 52.8 percent of their shots and holding the Rockets to nine fast-break points.

"It was a little uncharacteristic of us," Dekker said. "I think we only had [seven] 3s; that happens. It just sucks when that night is against one of the best teams in the NBA. But you've got to move on from it."