HOUSTON — It is rare that a team focuses on what they did not do well after holding a playoff opponent to fewer than 90 points and winning on the road.

But the Warriors universally rued their inability to grab offensive rebounds after defeating the Rockets 95-85 at the Toyota Center on Sunday.

They had good reason.

A young and spry Houston team, short on experience but enjoying an abundance of athleticism, cut a 23-point, third-quarter Golden State lead to just three in the fourth period, thanks in large part to 15 second-half offensive boards.

“They rough you up, they grab, they hold, they crash the boards,” elite defender Draymond Green said. “A very, extremely physical team, and you’ve got to give them credit, because they do a great job of it.”

The 6-foot-11 Steven Adams had five offensive rebounds, 6-7 Amen Thompson equaled the Warriors’ team total with six, and 6-5 Dillon Brooks nabbed three. Houston attempted 11 more shots than Golden State, which helped it stay in a game that saw the Rockets shoot just 39.1% from the field, and miss all but six of their 29 3-point attempts.

Time and time again, the Rockets kept possessions alive for second and third cracks at the basket by batting the ball in the air until one of their uber-athletes ripped it out of the sky.

The only Rockets player who didn’t have an offensive rebound was their 6-foot-nothing, ground-bound 31-year-old point guard Fred VanVleet.

At times, the Rockets threw out Adams, Alperen Sengun and Jabari Smith — all listed at 6-11 and the first two tipping the scales at more than 235 pounds — together against a Warriors team that employed the 6-6 Green at center for much of the night.

“They’re oversized human beings who are really athletic,” Jimmy Butler said dryly. “But we’ll go back to the drawing board and probably do some box out drills, and come back and not give up 22 offensive rebounds.”

Aside from running the same exercises every basketball team in America does, is there anything the shorter and smaller Warriors can do to even the playing field against Houston’s titanic lineups? Any solution that does not include the bouncy, 6-9 fourth-year forward Jonathan Kuminga, who did not play for the third consecutive game?

Veteran big man Kevon Looney, who stands 6-9, has been through his share of playoff battles against Hall of Fame front lines, and the wily vet believed the rebounding imbalance (52-36 in favor of Houston) had as much to do with his team as it did with the Rockets’ size.

“I think they got a lot of 50-50 ones, the ones at the elbows, the loose balls,” Looney said. “Some of them they’re going to get, but the ones that are loose that we’re trying to tip out, we have to win those.”

Golden State could also attack the offensive boards, something the team did in the final four minutes, when it grabbed three offensive rebounds that turned into two putbacks.

Houston might have big men made of brick and stone, but Butler said the team needs to be ready to run through a red wall.

“They’re an incredibly physical team,” Butler said. “You can’t back down from a challenge … meet brute force with brute force.”

The Warriors were hardly pushovers under the glass in the regular season, clocking in at seventh in the NBA in rebounds per game at 45.4 and fifth in offensive rebounds at 12.5 a night.

But there was also an air of inevitability when it came to surrendering a few second-chance opportunities to their opponents, who are even more proficient in this department than the Warriors.

Houston led the league in rebounding (48.5 per game) and offensive rebounds (14.6). The Rockets out-rebounded the Warriors in three of their five regular-season matchups, and the final two when Butler was on the roster.

“We can be better for sure, but they’re going to get offensive rebounds in this series, they just are,” coach Steve Kerr said. “So we have to keep playing, and the possession doesn’t end until we get the ball. We have to keep fighting.”

They’ll be fighting in Wednesday’s Game 2 from a position of strength after overcoming their struggles on the glass to take homecourt advantage.