Associated Press
In the realm of all-time NBA playoffs, Game 7 between the Houston Rockets and the Oklahoma City Thunder probably won’t matter much. For now, on the heels of full and complete sound chaos, it’s a kind of insolent, flirtatious moment that you can’t imagine forgetting.
Put another way: what. Did. We. Only. See.
No one should have a solid answer. The results are committed to memory, and even after Houston’s 104-102 victory on Wednesday night, the stakes assigned to the series are, for both parties, unclear.
Were the Rockets competing for right-to-sidestep calls to blow it up? Was Thunder being scrapped and tortured to keep this layer together, a se fission ahead who would see Danilo Galinari enter free agency and, as always, an onslaught of Chris Paul trade speculation.
Is winning the series in the first round worth a lot for both teams? Or was this just a chance to get a crack at the Los Angeles Lakers in the semifinals and get out of there?
Whatever the incentives, except the obvious, they belong to the Rockets. They survived. It wasn’t pretty, decisive or impressive, but they’re taking the micro-ball into the second round.
There is complete chaos as they use the method of transport to get there. Game 7 was full of action, not to mention riveting, but not exactly logical.
James Harden shot 4-of-15 from the floor, with only 1-of-9 out of three and missed really badly in the fist. Chris Paul attempted just 11 shots, the lowest total of that series. PJ Tucker couldn’t buy three (1-of-7) but bought an extra (5-of-9) to the hitherto frozen-cold Eric Gorde.
Danilo Galinari forgave my Italian, Un Muchio Fumente de Teribial (2-of-6 from the floor). Shaw-Gilgius-Alexander landed 19 points on a 6-of-11 clip, but as it seemed to have completely disappeared, he would save an incredibly important corner under three. Russell Westbrook He kept his turnover in check (two) and shot 3-6 shots at the two pairs outside the paint, but he escaped with only two assists and was a question-mark finisher inside the restricted area (6 — 12). Robert Cuwington teamed up with Gordon (21 points) to lead the Rockets in scoring.
Oh, yes, and then there’s Lugiants Dort. After going a long distance in the first six games —- 18 ((1 going..4 per cent), he naturally dropped -0 points, dropping six of his 12 trio and joining the company of Kobe Bryant and LeBron James:
The end suits the above vacancy. All you had to do was remove the result …
CP3 had the ball within 15 seconds to play the Thunder down together. He gave it to Gilgius-Alexander, who tied it up after being ignored by Westbrook. It then passed on to … Dort …, which went for a potential series winner three …. which … was blocked by renowned horror defensive expert Harden, who had three suits at night:
Oklahoma City still had a chance to tie or win after Clevington went 1-of-2 on the free-throw line. And then S.G.A. With 1.1 seconds left, S.G.A. Trying to inbound the ball was called -f-ball f-ball l. Or wait, did Thunder really call the deadline? It took a few minutes and many Chris Paul decided it in the face of conflict.
(On the one hand: Lost in the midst of all this, Steven Adams may have a clear way to end the lobe if Oklahoma City have inbound the ball.)
Eventually, Harden was called in for a rumor. Giving the option of sending someone to the charity bar for a shot, head coach Billy Donova chose … Galinari. It makes sense, because, after all, the Thunder is not like Chris Paul, who certainly didn’t hit 88.5 percent per free throw (23-of-26) For category.
Even so, miss the gallery. Sure, it was 29-of-29 on freebies up to that point. But it turns out Thunder is Chris Paul, their resident crunch-time superhero. So, yes
Houston Ok will then oversee Klahoma City’s final inbound game. Gilgius-Alexander was trying to push the ball towards Adams right inside the arc. Hitting the ball, it doesn’t matter. Adams is no near danger from afar.
After that, Paul also cried for the delay in the official call taken by Scott Foster:
The Rockets, meanwhile, made their latest debut “Under the James Harden Defense Campaign:
So what did we just see? Pure, unworthy, unbearable madness.
And now, for the Rockets, it’s on the Lakers, who must have played their last game about a week ago when they helped out Friday night. He doesn’t give Houston much time to sit in the aftermath of this win, but he wants to.
Winning this series is a closer call than a success story. The Thunder are a really good team, but the Rockets, experimentally they could be, were not assembled to put up resistance in the first round. They were created with the intention of fighting the election for the championship. The series didn’t do much to further that spirit. Houston seems to have avoided disaster.
Yes, in some ways, it could be a nightmare for the Rockets Lakers. Their no-bigs model runs in stark contrast to LA’s dual-large lineups, making way for mismatch. Then again, pushing the Lakers to play Anthony Davis in the center for longer is really in his favor.
What are rockets?Mark J. Terrell / Associated Press
Houston’s three-point volume should have the amount for at least the obvious benefit. That genre is kind of high, but so is the Los Angeles supporting cast.
It’s hard to make a reliable shot after LeBron James, and usually the roster is neither designed to start a multi-ton tray nor to constantly hit it on the clip above. Rockets are average Makes six long distances More 48 minutes more than the Lakers during the playoffs and a 48 minutes plus 4.5 conversions from outside the arc in that regular season.
However, that only means if the two Houston stars are not at or near the top of their games. Harden is now shooting 32.8 percent from downtown in the playoffs for his career and has been even worse, dropping 25 percent in the last quarter and the last five posts overtime during overtime, noted Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor. Westbrook is a composite wild card, a relentless force of nature that has sniffed out its best version as the team has moved away from playing from the right center, but can also break its team from making the wrong decision.
That being said, the Rockets didn’t learn much about themselves against the Thunder. Their range of postseason results is similar: from legitimate title threats to paper tigers, plus everything and anything in between.
Unless otherwise noted, statistics courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Re reference, Statehead or Glass Cleaning.
Dan Fawale covers this NBA For the Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (danfavale), And listen Hardwood Knox Podcast, co-hosted by Adam Fromal of B / R.
