The Houston Rockets are in the second round. It took them to the final second to reach their place, but they escaped with a 104-102 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 7 of their first round series on Wednesday night.
James Harden had a difficult night at the offensive end, finishing with 17 points from 4-of-15 off the field, but he came big in defense. With just seconds to play, he blocked Lou Dort’s potential game-winning 3-pointer, which ended up saving the day for the Rockets. Russell Westbrook bounced back from his error-filled game to get 6 to 20 points, while Robert Cuwington went ahead and added 22.
There was a story for Dortmund Thunder, when Harden turned a career-high 30 points while playing a strong defense at Harden. Chris Paul, meanwhile, finished with 19 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists to become the oldest player in NBA history to triple-double in Game 7. However, he could not get the basket while pulling down. Was, however, and now their storybook season is over.
Here are three key solutions from this game:
1. Harden defends himself, rockets with defense
James Harden is an exceptional basketball player, but his playoff resume is not all that special. Since arriving in Houston in 2013, the Rockets have made playoffs every season, but have won just seven series, including this one, reached two conference finals, and made no trip to the finals.
Now, a big part of it is the recent dominance of the Golden State Warriors, but it’s still a disappointing part of the results for someone challenging for MVP in almost every single one of the seasons – there have been some notable no-shows, especially considering Harden. Along the way.
Achieving a 2-0 lead against an unseen team to make the playoffs this season, while scoring 17 points on 4-of-15 shooting in Game 7, would have been another big tweak to his post-season legacy. So when he came up with the clutch block at the last second on the Lou Dort, he didn’t just save the rockets; He saved himself.
2, Dort makes history
Lu Dorte spent some of the season in the G-League with League Calahoma City Blue and averaged 6.8 points per game in 36 appearances with the Thunder. So you will be forgiven for not knowing more about it than heading about it in this series. In fact, most casual fans probably hadn’t even heard his name before.
Well, everyone knows that now. Thunder coach Billy Donovan relied heavily on Dort in the series, mostly as a defensive specialist against Harden. With his size, strength, and speed, Dart made life miserable for the MVP candidate, including Game 7, where he helped limit it to 17 points.
But after receiving praise for his work on the defensive end over the past few weeks, Dorothy turned into an aggressive performance of his life on Wednesday night, taking the Thunder almost to the second round. The Rockets ignored him on the perimeter and Dart took advantage, knocking down 6-pointers on the way to a career-high 30 points.
However, the OCC ended up losing, with Dart making history in the process, joining LeBron James and Kobe Bryant as the only players 21 years or older to drop at least 25 points in Game 7. Not a bad company.
3. What a ridiculous ending
Playing seven minutes and 11 seconds, Chris Poole threw two free throws to tie the game at 96-96. From there, both teams played something that was just like basketball. The Rockets outscored the Thunder 8-6 below the strand as they made a combined 5-of-26 from the field. It had more fouls (6) and more turnover (6) than shots made in the stretch.
The last few minutes, in particular, were surprising. There was a sequence where Dennis Schroeder missed a jumper and Eric Gordon came in with a loose ball before several players hit the deck for a rebound. When he crossed the midcourt, Chris Paul flops to draw the charge, and even though his phone doesn’t ring, he stops Gordon’s motion, and the Rockets Guard turns him around. Paul then picked up the ball and barred it with Harden, who flopped and failed to draw his own charge, before Paul missed what the forward jumper would be. Madness.
And if that wasn’t enough, the final few seconds were even more wild. Simultaneously moving slowly, Harden flew to block Dort’s potential game-winner, and the ball bounced straight back to Dort. Ruchiwala tried to throw Harden to save possession but he threw between his legs. The Rockets then had two seconds left, and Robert Cuewington was immediately fouled.
Although he only threw one free, the Thunder got two runs down to play two 1.1 seconds. On his initial final attempt, Billy Donovan ran to the court to call a deadline to stop a five-second violation, while the referee was simultaneously calling on Harden. After deliberation, the Rafs decided it was actually a foul on Harden before the ball was inbound, giving Thunder a shot and the ball.
Danilo Galinari couldn’t throw for free, though, so the whole sequence doesn’t matter at all. When they finally returned to the Thunder’s original position with 1.1 seconds left, OKCA turned the ball over to the inbounds, ending the game and their season.
All said, last minute of regulation Took 16 minutes of real-time Between fouls, reviews and deadlines. On the one hand, you want to make sure you get everything right, but it’s a little ridiculous. In any case, it was definitely not the most beautiful basketball game ever played, but it was quite the memorable one you want from Game 7.
