Wolves snap Rockets’ winning streak
MINNEAPOLIS — After so many withdrawals from their allotment of comebacks, the Rockets could have felt they had run out. They had said they could not rely on comebacks from double-digit deficits so often, and they were right.
But they knew their 119-105 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night was not about a comeback coming too late or ending too soon.
This was not probability catching up to the Rockets after five of their nine straight victories requiring a rally from at least 10 points down.
The Rockets might have even wanted to point to fatigue, having played the third game in four nights spent crisscrossing North America.
Harden pours in 33
Missing Eric Gordon, out for a second consecutive game with a sprained big toe on his left foot, the Rockets only flashed occasional glimpses of the firepower that had helped drive their comebacks. Harden had 33 points with 12 assists but made just 2 of 11 3-pointers. Ryan Anderson had 18 points but missed his first seven shots.
Still, the Rockets were able to go from down 11 points in the first half to a one-point lead midway through the third quarter.
The Timberwolves then used a stretch of hot shooting to blow the game open, building a 21-point lead large enough to weather a team with a run of comebacks against a Minnesota team that had allowed 12 of them.
“We weren’t real good defensively,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. “We were like running in the mud. With a couple players down, other guys playing big minutes in a back-toback, the schedule’s been pretty tough and it’s getting tougher. It was one of those nights; we didn’t have it. I thought we could pull it out in the second half because the first half we didn’t have it but stayed even, more or less. We just didn’t have the gas that we needed.”
The Timberwolves had been regularly getting good looks from the opening tip. They turned the ball over often enough in the second quarter for the Rockets to pull within one point by halftime as Nene sank a turnaround 3 from 31 feet at the buzzer. But even when the Rockets went in front, Minnesota was getting good enough shots to expect its share to fall.
No touch, no stops
When the Rockets went up 69-68 with 6:22 left in the third quarter, the Timberwolves made 11 of their next 16 shots, scoring 31 points in nine minutes.
The Rockets closed to within 12 points with 2½ minutes remaining, which would have seemed too great a deficit with too little time left. But in their previous matchup here last month, the Rockets trailed by 12 with 2:19 left and rallied to win in overtime. This time, the Timberwolves worked the ball to an open corner 3 with Shabazz Muhammad ending any thoughts of one more comeback.
“It was tough tonight,” Rockets forward Corey Brewer said. “We couldn’t throw it in the ocean and defensively, we couldn’t get a stop. We were still down one at halftime, but we just didn’t have it tonight. They’re very talented, but we weren’t sharp at all.”
That might have been expected. More telling, perhaps, it’s one loss more than they were willing to accept.