Rockets have lost 5 of last 7
including one against Portland. But when the Rockets made the game tight, Lillard returned to the floor and took over.
The Blazers outscored the Rockets 21-10 in the next eight minutes, with Lillard getting 11 of his 31 points.
By then, the Rockets’ run had become irrelevant. Their designs on the game were gone, and their hopes for the season were fading badly.
Harden and Howard had immediately made sure the Rockets would get off to a much better start than in Saturday’s blowout loss at home to Portland. Howard knocked down his first five shots in the opening quarter, Harden made his first four, and the Rockets quickly took a seven-point lead.
No help for Big Two
The Rockets were not getting stops early, but after their worst shooting game of the season days earlier against the Blazers, they had left those issues behind. The problem was finding Howard and Harden any help.
While they combined to make nine of 11 shots in the first quarter, the rest of the Rockets did not score at all, missing their first eight attempts before Corey Brewer put in a corner 3-pointer at the buzzer. That sent the game to the second quarter tied.
The Rockets even began getting stops they could not in the first quarter. They led by five with Howard still scoring consistently.
In the final six minutes of the half, however, the Blazers turned up their intensity, and the Rockets crumbled.
The Blazers had just the start of a run, taking a two-point lead, when Beverley went from turning the ball over to running into Lillard for no apparent reason.
That inspired a video review to determine if his foul was flagrant. It wasn’t, but it did seem to put a charge in the Blazers, which was enough for the Rockets to fall apart. Portland rolled through a rapid 12-0 run, greatly helped by Rockets turnovers and missed free throws. Howard put in a free throw, but the Rockets kept turning the ball over, giving themselves little chance to regain their shooting touch to keep pace.
In one particularly bad sequence, the Rockets called a timeout to halt the run only to have Harden immediately turn the ball over again, leading to another Blazers fast break while the Rockets watched, lamenting the mistake instead of doing something about it.
Spate of turnovers
The Blazers made just 37 percent of their shots in the second quarter but still had 28 points, scoring 11 off Rockets turnovers. The Rockets had 13 turnovers in the first half, leading to 20 Portland points. Harden went from scoring 15 points in the first quarter to none in the second. The Rockets took five 3-pointers in the second quarter and missed them all.
More than anything, when the Blazers turned up their intensity, the Rockets took their beating and headed to the All Star break with one more meek surrender to offer a reminder of how far they have fallen.