A fourth-quarter surge allows the Rockets to claim a 2-0 lead over the Thunder in the series.
Westbrook cools as Harden & Co. turn it on late, erase slow start
The Rockets took the best shot the Thunder could land.
Russell Westbrook relentlessly flew into the NBA record books again, chewing up pages as he had the Rockets’ defense, and the Rockets were staggered, but not down. The Thunder’s muscle was pounding and pounding away inside, and the Rockets were stunned, but not out.
Oklahoma City was not just rolling, the Thunder were exhibiting everything from its greatest hits collection. But the Rockets did not flinch.
The Rockets took the hardest from-the-heels punch the Thunder had and then hit back, slowing Westbrook, firing 3s and surging past the Thunder 115-111 with the most stubbornly determined, dogged comeback of wins Wednesday night at Toyota Center.
Rallying from down 15 in the first half and from as much as 12 late in the fourth quarter, the Rockets took a 10-point lead on the way to a 2-0 series lead. With the first-round series headed to Oklahoma City for Friday’s Game 3, teams leading 2-0 have gone 364-24 in the NBA playoffs.
There was little mystery about how they did it.
“It comes down to the heart and soul and the want of the players,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. “They showed their resilience, like they showed all year.
“It didn’t surprise me. Whatever these guys do collectively as a group, it doesn’t surprise me. I just told them, ‘a great game, a great gut-check kind of win.’ You have to have those in the playoffs. You can’t play great all the time. We just hung in there, hung in there.
“I can’t explain it. They’ve done it all year.”
Defense makes stand
As Westbrook soared to the first 50-point tripledouble in NBA playoffs history, the Rockets did just enough to rally to within six at halftime and to within three heading into the fourth quarter. They had outscored the Thunder 12-3 in the final 2½ minutes of the third quarter when Westbrook took a seat.
When he returned, the Rockets had Trevor Ariza on him, a wall of defenders in front of him and a defense finally up to stopping him. Westbrook had spent the game darting around screens to stop-on-a-dime jumpers and knife-blade drives to the rim.
But in the fourth quarter, he made four of 18 shots, the most misses in the fourth period of a playoff game, including a pair of buckets after the Rockets’ lead had swelled to a safe 10 with 1:22 remaining.
“That’s what you have to do,” said Ariza, who led the fourth-quarter defensive effort on Westbrook. “You have to find ways to get stops, find ways to win. He’s going to score a lot of points. He takes the majority of shots on his team. He’s going to find ways to get his, so if we can limit everybody else, we have a good chance.”
Once the Rockets had Westbrook under control, the Thunder made just 24.1 percent of their fourth-quarter shots.
Westbrook finished with 51 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds but made D’Antoni say, “There’s no doubt about it; 17-of-43, we’ll take that.”
The Rockets began to rally when James Harden scored 12 of their final 14 points of the third quarter and Pat Beverley and Eric Gordon stepped up in the fourth.
Strength in numbers
On a night in which Westbrook could not find enough help, Harden scored 35 points with eight assists. The Rockets kept searching until they find scorers around him.
Gordon and Lou Williams combined for 43 points, with Williams keeping the Rockets in the game in the first half and Gordon helping to take it over in the second half.
“Early in the first half, they were getting offensive rebounds, kind of dominating the game,” Gordon said. “Of course, we’re going to be a great offensive team, and that’s always going to keep us in it.”
When the Rockets trailed by 12 with 15 minutes left in the game, they had made four of 18 3-pointers. They made seven of 11 the rest of the way.
“We’ve got so many guys to choose from,” D’Antoni said. “Somebody’s going to come out and do something.”
Mostly, the Rockets just persevered, tightening the defense and firing away until they caught a wave as if they always knew they would.
“We didn’t give up,” Harden said. “We continued to grind and fight and figure a way to win.”