The Houston Rockets had a 5-point lead in the final minute of Saturday’s Game 3 and were seconds away from an overwhelming 3-0 advantage in their first-round playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Less than 48 hours later, the best-of-seven series is now tied, 2-2, after a 117-114 victory (box score) by the Thunder on Monday afternoon. Game 5 is Wednesday night, with tip-off at 5:30 p.m. Central.
After starting the second half 8-for-8 on 3-pointers, the Rockets led by 15 midway through the third quarter. They regained a 13-point advantage with a P.J. Tucker corner 3-pointer with 2:54 left in the period.
From that point forward — until a pair of meaningless 3-pointers in the final 20 seconds, after the game had effectively been decided — the Rockets scored just 15 points in well over 14 game minutes as Game 4 wound down. It was a stunning drought by a team that averaged 117.6 points per game this season, ranking second in the entire NBA.
“We strayed away from what we do on both ends of the ball,” said James Harden, who became the first player in NBA playoff history to lose while having 30+ points, 15+ assists, and 5+ rebounds. (Harden finished with 32, 15, and eight, respectively, and he also had a game-high four steals.)
“The Beard” continued with his postgame analysis:
We don’t score the basketball, and then we don’t get back defensively. Obviously teams are going to make runs, but it’s the way they made their run. We weren’t getting shots we wanted offensively, and defensively, we weren’t sticking to our principles. So it was a disaster on both ends.”
Once the game went final, Harden was so frustrated that he pushed over a hand sanitizer stand on his way to the locker room.
James Harden — not a big hand sanitizer guy #NBAPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/0vCJmN6Psz
— Nate Feken (@TheGreat_Nate) August 24, 2020
Excluding the final 20 seconds, which were largely cosmetic after Oklahoma City went up five, the Rockets shot just 2-of-16 on 3-pointers (12.5%) in the fourth quarter. Harden played a game-high 43 minutes and only sat one minute of the second half, which may have led to fatigue.
Harden, however, did not admit to that. “We just relaxed, and they gained confidence,” he said postgame. “That’s what happened.”
After starting the third quarter 8-8 from three-point range, the Rockets missed 20 of their next 23 three-pointers until Harden hit the one with 16 seconds left. Harden was 0-7 from deep during that stretch.
— ClutchFans (@clutchfans) August 24, 2020
Aside from missing shots, Harden and the Rockets were also inexplicably careless with the ball. After having only seven turnovers in each of their Game 1 and Game 2 wins, they’ve averaged 15 per game during the Game 3 and Game 4 losses. Harden had six turnovers in Monday’s loss after having just one in his previous two games combined.
Of those six turnovers, Harden’s last was most costly. It came on an ill-advised outlet pass in the final minute, with Houston only down one.
Very risky pass by James Harden leads to the costly turnover. OKC scores on the possession. Thunder by 3.
— Salman Ali (@SalmanAliNBA) August 24, 2020
The Thunder were led by 26 points from former Rockets guard Chris Paul, who had a pair of crucial buckets in the game’s final two minutes. Each time, the Rockets were ahead by a point. Dennis Schroder, who scored 30 off the bench, hit what proved to be the clinching layup out of an isolation sequence following Harden’s sixth turnover.
“They went small and tried to put [Danilo Gallinari] at the 5 and really tried to spread us out and attack one-on-one,” said Eric Gordon, who scored 23 points. “They scored a lot of baskets going one-on-one. We’re going to make adjustments, but this game was about defense really.”
Paul has clearly been a difference maker against his former team, while the man he was traded for — Russell Westbrook — has still yet to play for the Rockets in the series due to a right quad strain. Head coach Mike D’Antoni has said that Westbrook is “getting closer,” which video from recent practices appears to confirm, but the team has still yet to give an official timetable for Westbrook’s game availability.
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Game 5 between the Rockets and Thunder tips off at 5:30 p.m. Central on Wednesday, with a national broadcast on TNT and a regional version (with Houston announcers) on AT&T SportsNet Southwest.
“We just couldn’t do it this time,” D’Antoni concluded after Game 4. “There’s some things we’ll adjust and look at and get better at. But it’s a two-out-of-three series right now.”
“Nothing is lost, nothing is gained, and we’ll go to work.”
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