THE DIRTY THIRD
Latest disappearing act in pivotal quarter seals Rockets’ fate in decisive game
For the past couple of years, the Rockets have leaned on the slogan “Run as One.” By the time the Western Conference finals wrapped up Monday night, the once-fun mantra needed amending: “Third and Done.”
For the second consecutive game, the Rockets blew a double-digit halftime lead in the third quarter, and this time it cost them their first trip to the NBA Finals since 1995. The Warriors prevailed 101-92 in Game 7 in turning a surefire wild night in Houston into a mild one by midnight.
“We just missed shots, that’s all there is to it,” Rockets forward Trevor Ariza said of a ghastly third quarter for the home team. “Defensively, I thought we played well. We just didn’t make shots.”
Only the setting was different concerning the consecutive crumbles, as the Game 6 thirdquarter collapse occurred in Oakland, Calif., and the most devastating one to the Rockets’ fortunes took place in front of a once-jubilant home crowd.
Even when the Rockets headed for the locker room at halftime clutching a 54-43 lead and to a collective roar of the Toyota Center on Monday — fans also held their collective breath based on the prowess of the defending champion Warriors.
It turns out the fans’ anxiety was warranted. The Rockets, in primarily relying on a sevenman rotation once again and without star guard Chris Paul (hamstring), missed all 14 of their 3-point attempts in the pivotal quarter (and 27 in a row at one point).
By the time the sawdust had settled from the sudden and harsh dismantling, the Warriors led 76-69 headed into the fourth quarter — when they also had decidedly fresher legs than the Rockets — an 18-point turnaround in the span of 12 minutes.
“It’s tough,” said Rockets guard Eric Gordon, Paul’s replacement in the lineup. “We’ve got such a small rotation of guys. We had to play very, very well throughout the whole game. We couldn’t have any lapses.”
In the third quarter of Game 6, the Warriors more than doubled up the Rockets (33-16) en route to a 115-86 victory, in a contest the Rockets led by 17 at the end of the first quarter.
This time around, a still-expectant home crowd helped keep the Rockets hanging around, but it wasn’t enough against a Warriors squad intent on making its fourth consecutive trip to the Finals.
Despite having the best record in the regular season (6517), the Rockets must figure out in the offseason how to deal with their third-quarter crumbles against the league’s elite. That likely will mean adding younger legs, as Paul, Ariza, P.J. Tucker and Gerald Green all are in their early 30s.
There’s also no doubt Paul was missed in the past two games after halftime, as one who had occasionally loaded the Rockets on his back after the break in the series — before suffering the injury late in Game 5, a narrow Rockets victory at home.
Coach Mike D’Antoni, too, will have to expand his rotation no matter how much he believes seven players can get it done — because it was glaringly apparent against the Warriors that won’t work deep into the postseason. In the horror show of a third quarter for the dead-legged Rockets, Ariza missed all five of his 3-pointers. Gordon and Harden each missed three. Meantime the Warriors’ Stephen Curry heated up at the right time for the visitors, in shooting 5-of-6 from the field, including 4-of-5 on 3s in the third.
“We had a lot of energy and effort in the first half,” Tucker said. “They basically did (in the third quarter) what we did in the first half.”
The Rockets moved into their downtown digs in 2003, and hadn’t sniffed the NBA Finals over the past 15 years. They finally sniffed them over the past week in getting within one victory of the NBA’s promised land, but left a foul smell in the arena based on one horrible quarter — all over again.