On paper, the March 26, 2017 game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets was supposed to be a showdown between MVP frontrunners Russell Westbrook and James Harden. As ABC’s Sunday game of the week, Toyota Center had the national spotlight.
But from the perspective of scoring efficiency, no one was better on that day than Rockets reserve guard Lou Williams.
Williams scored a team-high 31 points — the most of his brief tenure in Houston — on 11-of-15 shooting (73.3%), including a blistering 7-of-8 clip (87.5%) on 3-pointers. The Rockets won with ease, 137-125 (box score), and collectively made 20-of-39 from 3-point range (51.3%).
“They hit a lot of shots, man,” Westbrook said postgame. “They got hot and especially with a team like that, they get hot and it can be trouble.”
Westbrook scored a game-high 39 points, but 18 came after the game was long over — with the Rockets leading by 25 points heading to the fourth quarter. Harden had 22 points and 12 assists.
Westbrook and Harden would finish first and second, respectively, in 2017 MVP voting. But the Rockets got the last laugh by eliminating the Thunder, four games to one, in the first round of the 2017 NBA playoffs.
After being acquired from the Los Angeles Lakers at the February 2017 trade deadline, Williams played in 34 combined regular-season and playoff games for the Rockets. He was then traded to the Clippers, where he remains today, in the June 2017 deal for Chris Paul.
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