IT’S A DONE DEAL
Switch flipped in 3rd quarter to sew up series
Perhaps James Harden is right. Maybe there is some “switch” somewhere the Rockets flip and emerge transformed.
They would get no argument from the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Rockets were struggling, caught in another skintight game, an unwanted return to Minneapolis looking very much a possibility. Then once again, Harden dominated, the offense soared and the Rockets surged from a 10-point first-half deficit to a 122-104 blowout Wednesday night at Toyota Center that sent them into the Western Conference semifinals after eliminating the Timberwolves in five games.
The Rockets will face either the Utah Jazz or Oklahoma
City Thunder in the second round.
“Pretty good step for us, a step in the right direction, but we have a long way to go,” Harden said. “We didn’t have this team just to win one playoff series. We just wait, work on some things we need to get better at, figure out who we are going to play and take it from there.”
The Rockets got to the second round off a sensational second half, and especially a second consecutive third quarter that changed the game and took command of the series. Harden scored 19 of his 24 points and had nine of his 12 assists. Every Rockets starter scored in double figures with Clint Capela getting a playoff career-high 26 points (on 12-of-14 shooting) and 15 rebounds to outpace the Timberwolves’ Karl-Anthony Towns, who had 23 points to go with 14 rebounds.
“He was incredible,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. “His thrust and force and rebounding and what he did and the stamina, he was incredible. You don’t get much better than that. I know he plays the way he plays. But in that role, there’s nobody better in the league. What he does, there’s nobody better.”
The Rockets did not match their 50-point blast through Monday’s third quarter, but they headed in that direction. After trailing by 10 points in the second quarter and by four heading into the third, the Rockets rushed through a 10-2 burst to start the second half with Chris Paul sinking a pair of midrange jumpers and Harden and P.J. Tucker putting in 3-pointers.
That did not bury the T-Wolves, but as Harden had said Monday, they had “hit the switch.”
Minnesota recovered and reclaimed the lead, but Harden had found his third-quarter magic.
He sank a pair of 3s and tore through the T-Wolves’ defense to spike home a slam that had Jimmy Butler and Towns talking about more than how to score the dunk.
“Third quarter is a big quarter for us,” Rockets forward Trevor Ariza said. “We started the second half and we wanted to impose our will.”
Asked what the Rockets had done so well, Ariza ran down a long list.
“Taking care of the ball, playing defense, getting out in transition, getting to our spots, having the floor open and spaced so that our point guards can do their thing and get us involved in the game,” Ariza said. “When we do those things, we’re pretty tough to beat.”
By then, they could score whatever was necessary to finish off the game and the series. But this time, they had taken over with defense.
“We came up with about three good quarters in the series and knocked them out,” D’Antoni said. “The first half, I thought we just didn’t get into people. They were shooting the ball extremely well, but most of that was because we gave them space, gave them confidence.
“At halftime, we talked about it. They talked about it. Guess what. In Minnesota, it was more of an offensive explosion. It was a defensive explosion this time because of getting into them and making them miss some shots.”
The T-Wolves went from making 54.8 percent of their shots (63.6 percent of their 3s) in the first half to making just 33.3 percent, missing all three of their 3-pointers, in the third quarter when the Rockets held them to 15 points.
“I knew Minnesota wasn’t going to just go away,” Harden said. “We had to make sure we did the right things to put them away. As much as we talk about our offense, and getting it going. Defensively, we picked it up and that led to transition 3s and layups and things like that.
“We’ve been saying all season long, to get where we want to go, defensive has to be our backbone.”
It sent the Rockets to the second round, with another dominant blast displaying what is possible when they put it all together.