The three giveth, and the three taketh.
It’s a lesson that Mike D’Antoni and his teams have learned quite well over the years, and the Houston Rockets got a stark reminder of that fact down the stretch of their Game 4 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday.
Behind a 30-point effort from Dennis Schroder, the Thunder tied their series with the Rockets at two games apiece, and they did so thanks in large part to their holding the Rockets to some miserable shooting from long range.
For the game, Houston ended up a respectable 23-for-58 from the three-point line, but it was the team’s shooting in the fourth quarter that saw it eventually fall short to a spirited Thunder squad that sought to desperately avoid falling into a 3-1 series hole.
In the fourth quarter, the Rockets shot just 4-for-19 from three-point range. Two of those makes came in the game’s final 16 seconds when the game had already been decided. The final game — a 53-foot converted heave by Danuel House, Jr. that came at the buzzer —had no impact on the game at all.
When it counted the most, the Rockets missed 14 of their 15 three-point attempts. Robert Covington connected on an attempt with 11:26 remaining in the period, then Houston missed their next seven attempts before Covington hit another with 8:21 remaining.
Houston would miss their next eight attempts, while allowed the Thunder to take and mostly maintain control in the final minutes of the game. The Rockets had their chances, but the cold shooting from outside gave the Thunder the opening they needed, and they certainly capitalized.
The 58 attempts from long-range are an NBA record.
Because the majority of them didn’t fall when it counted, though, the teams will carry a 2-2 series in a pivotal Game 5 contest on Wednesday.