REALITY CHECK
Harden, Paul and Co. gave it their all, but that wasn’t good enough to beat the West’s best
The Warriors. Always the Warriors. This special season began with Golden State already in mind.
This historic year — 65 wins, NBA’s No. 1 playoff seed and the best roster that Daryl Morey has constructed — ended with the Warriors in the NBA Finals for a fourth consecutive time and the Rockets falling short once again.
“Golden State has set the bar for the whole league, not just us,” coach Mike D’Antoni said. So darn close in 2018. Chris Paul stuck on the bench in a season-ending Game 7?
So painful and cruel.
Warriors weary
James Harden, D’Antoni and CP3 came one win away from a stage the Rockets haven’t reached since 1995, falling 101-92 to Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Co. on Monday night at Toyota Center in the finale of the Western Conference finals.
And now Golden State gets The King’s Cavaliers despite trailing 54-43 at halftime and being down by 15. There was a 33-15 Warriors third quarter and the run you just knew was coming. Golden State simply took over Game 7, and the home team — which missed a surreal 27 consecutive 3-pointers — had no final answer and faded again.
"Our talent took over,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr said. “It's as simple as that."
Just three bench points, a 12-of-29 shooting night from Harden and an 0-of-12 effort from Trevor Ariza didn’t help the Rockets’ cause.
“(The Warriors), you think you’ve got them. … If you just take a deep breath one time, it’s a 3,” D’Antoni said.
The Rockets, reinvented and revamped in recent years, have fallen to the Warriors three times in the last four seasons, including twice in the conference finals.
Thanks to Golden State, Paul and D’Antoni still haven’t been to the NBA Finals. Because of the Warriors, the greatest overall season of Harden’s career is over, and a 3-2 Rockets series lead ended up as Golden State versus Cleveland in the real Finals, Part IV.
“We’re obsessing right now,” said D’Antoni, who opened up his postgame interview by joking that the Rockets’ front office is already planning how to make another run at the Warriors.
Declaring Paul unavailable for Game 7, almost two hours before tipoff, was another sign that the best regular season in franchise history ultimately was going to end the wrong way for the Rockets.
Golden State could lose Andre Iguodala and win the final two games of the series. But when the Rockets lost Paul in the final minute of Game 5, they weren’t the same, even when they randomly shined.
“I hate it for him. He’s probably more devastated than anybody,” said D’Antoni, referring to a nine-time All-Star who made the conference finals for the first time this season, then couldn’t take the court the last two games.
Having heart helped
The Rockets fell behind 1-0 in the series and were blown out by a combined 70 points in Games 3 and 6. When they won, they were forced to fight for victories with defense, iso ball and mental toughness.
The team that outran and outscored opponents all season was relying on its collective heart by the time its 2017-18 campaign was complete.
“I’ll just look at the fight and hustle and what they did as people,” D’Antoni said. “I couldn’t be prouder.”
Harden poured in 16 first-half points, Clint Capela pounded in 14 and grabbed six rebounds, and a length-of-the-court sprint and buzzer-beating layup from Eric Gordon (14 points) captured two different intensities in a raucous half. The Rockets scored 30 of their 54 points in the paint and outrebounded the Warriors 26-17. The league’s reigning champs bickered, yelled at each other and acted indifferent to the season-defining importance of Game 7.
Then the Rockets broke down again. Durant and Curry started firing. And the Warriors turned an 11-point halftime deficit into a 13-point fourth-quarter lead, stunning Toyota Center and silencing a once-roaring crowd.
“One half of basketball. Two games. … It’s extremely frustrating,” said Harden, who shot just 41 percent from the field and 29.9 percent on 3s in the playoffs.
Losing Paul was key
We’ll always wonder if the Rockets could have beaten the Warriors with a healthy Paul.
The series turned in Games 4 and 5. Before CP3 went down, Golden State appeared lost and disoriented for the first time in years. It was the Rockets who were sticking with what was working and the Warriors who were struggling to adjust.
“That’s what C.P. was so good at, the two games we won,” D’Antoni said. “They’d make a little run … he’d hit a 3.”
In Game 6, the Paul-less Rockets led 39-22 after the first quarter and were rapidly punching Golden State again. In Game 7, it was 48-33 home team. Then reality returned. Despite being an MVP candidate in three of the last four seasons, Harden hasn’t been able to do it alone, without CP3 or with Dwight Howard. The Rockets traded about half their roster for another point guard last summer, just for a stronger shot at the Warriors. Without Paul, D’Antoni’s team was down to just one superstar versus a superpower and eventually ran out of fire in back-to-back games.
The Warriors are going to the NBA Finals again.
The best Rockets team that Harden has played for and Morey has built fell short, again.
Four years after Golden State’s run began, the Warriors are still standing in the Rockets’ way.