‘We let one get away’: Harden, Rockets lament Game 3 mistakes

Houston led by 5 points with under a minute left in regulation, but the Thunder forced OT and won with ease after James Harden fouled out.

No team has ever overcome a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series in the history of the NBA playoffs. And when P.J. Tucker‘s corner 3-pointer put the Houston Rockets up by five points over Oklahoma City with less than a minute left in regulation, it seemed that’s where the series was headed.

But the Thunder outscored the Rockets by a 7-2 margin over the final 55 seconds to force overtime. From there, once James Harden fouled out in the first minute of extra time, that was effectively the game — with OKC cruising to a 119-107 overtime win (box score) in Saturday’s Game 3.

Oklahoma City’s victory brings them within 2-1 in the best-of-seven playoff series, with Game 4 looming on Monday afternoon.

Jeff Green, who had 22 points (61.5% FG) and seven assists off the bench, was asked postgame whether his team felt it had slipped away.

Of course. That’s exactly how we feel. We allowed that one to get away from us, , but we know it started on the defensive end. We have to get back to what got us those two wins in the first two games.

We can’t dwell too long on this game, we have to look at the film and see where we can be better.

Harden led the Rockets with 38 points, and he eight assists to just one turnover. But like Green, he blamed the defensive shortcomings — which were a stark contrast to their stifling showing in Game 2.

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Harden’s postgame remarks:

We definitely let one get away, especially in that last minute. I think throughout the course of the game, though, we just made too many mental mistakes and gave them opportunities to score. It’s that simple.

I think defensively throughout the course of the game, we made too many mental mistakes, and personnel driven, which gave them 3s or layups. We have to limit those opportunities. And we will, I think, in Game 4.

After Houston went up five on Tucker’s trey, OKC got four quick points when Chris Paul blew past Harden (who had five fouls) to attack the rim. One bucket came on a CP3 layup, and the other a dish to Steven Adams. In between, Danuel House Jr. stepped out of bounds for a turnover.

The Rockets went back up two when Paul was called for an away-from-the-ball foul against Harden on the ensuing inbounds play, but Tucker threw the next inbounds pass away when Gordon slipped.

From there, Paul again collapsed Houston’s defense and found Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for an open corner 3-pointer, which put OKC up a point. House drew a foul in the final 10 seconds, split his free throws, and Paul missed a reverse layup at the buzzer — sending the game to OT.

Of that frantic closing sequence, it was the inbounds turnover that appeared to bother head coach Mike D’Antoni the most.

Eric obviously slipped and the pass got away from them.

I told [Tucker] he had a timeout if he needed, but he thought he could get it in. That’s part of the game.

The Thunder were led by their three top guards in Dennis Schroder, Paul, and Gilgeous-Alexander — who scored 29, 26, and 23 points, respectively. Collectively, they easily had their most efficient shooting game of the first-round series at 30-of-61 overall (49.2%).

Much of OKC’s late success came by targeting Harden on pick-and-rolls, knowing that “The Beard” couldn’t defend aggressively due to foul trouble.  The overtime period was never close after Harden fouled out.

When asked postgame, Harden put the blame on himself for being sloppy earlier in the game and being that close to disqualification.

Defensively, they were trying to put me in pick and roll, and get the switch. Their guards are crafty as far as drawing fouls, so I wasn’t trying to even come close and be in contact. I can’t allow that to happen early in the game. I can’t pick up cheap fouls throughout the course of the game, and then I wouldn’t be in that position later in the game.

I put that on myself.

While Harden led the Rockets with 38 points, he was again flustered at times by Thunder rookie Lu Dort. Harden missed 10 of his 13 attempts from 3-point range (23.1%), and backcourt mate Eric Gordon was even worse at 8-of-24 overall (33.3%) and 2-of-10 (20%) on 3-pointers. In the plus/minus, Houston was -29 in Gordon’s 41 minutes played.

All-Star guard Russell Westbrook (right quad strain) was again sidelined by injury, though D’Antoni said he was not yet ruled out for Game 4.

“I don’t know yet,” D’Antoni said of Westbrook’s status. “I’m sure he’s going to test it. He’s working every day and getting a little bit better. So we’ll see, but today I have no clue. We’ll see in a day or two.”

The Thunder will again be the “home” team on Monday. To this point, the home team has won all three games. But with each matchup inside the NBA’s fan-less “bubble” at Disney World, that shouldn’t be significant.

Game 4 between the Rockets and Thunder tips off at 3:00 p.m. Central on Monday, with a national broadcast on TNT and a regional version (with Houston announcers) on AT&T SportsNet Southwest.

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