Consolation prize
Victory in home finale a rare positive in season with little to cheer
Somehow, some way, against whatever combination of Clippers took the floor for a game that did not mean as much to them as rest, the Rockets desperately wanted a win.
It took Kelly Olynyk flirting with the first triple-double of his career, every non-Cam who played scoring in double figures, and even winning a coaches’ challenge with 100 seconds left to claim the elusive prize.
The Rockets produced their highest score after three quarters this season followed by an exhausted drag to the finish, but they finally held on for a 122-115 win to snap a seven-game losing streak with just one game left in the season.
With the Clippers sitting most of their regulars for much of the night and almost entirely in the fourth quarter, the Rockets led by 17 before settling for a sevenpoint victory.
Olynyk had 20 points with 11 assists, matching his career-high, but fell one rebound shy of a triple-double. Jae’Sean Tate also had 20 points, with Anthony Lamb and Khryri Thomas each adding 17.
Every player other than hardship roster exemptions Cam Oliver and Cam Reynolds scored in double figures.
When the win was complete, Rockets coach Stephen Silas
grabbed a headset and the game ball, presenting it to longtime Rockets broadcaster Bill Worrell, who had just called his final game.
Luke Kennard, the only Clippers regular to play heavy minutes, had 23 points.
While the Rockets kept adding to their roster to make up for having 10 players out, signing Reynolds on Friday, the Clippers gave several regulars — including Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and Patrick Beverley — the night off. Clippers coach Ty Lue pulled starting center Ivica Zubac after three minutes, giving him enough time to put up a 3-pointer, his fourth of the season and the first he had made in his career, then call it a night.
Those makeshift lineups did not equip either team to play a whole lot of defense.
In a shootout, the Rockets would not seem to have much of a chance against the best 3-point shooting team in league history. As much as the Clippers had reduced their roster to their role players, that still meant playing time for veterans Kennard, Marcus Morris Sr., Rajon Rondo, Nicolas Batum and Patrick Patterson, along with centers DeMarcus Cousins and Serge Ibaka.
That gave them as many proven veterans as the Rockets had players. The Clippers had three players — Morris, Patterson and Cousins — who had played more games with the Rockets in their careers than the Rockets had Friday.
The Rockets’ fill-ins, however, had all been signed to shoot. There wasn’t a great deal of cohesion, especially defensively, among players who never had practiced together. But they quickly picked up on the concept of firing away whenever possible.
That brought them back from an 11-point first-half deficit to a 73-69 lead heading into the second half.
The Rockets had averaged 19.8 3-pointers on their four-game road trip, the most in the NBA in that stretch, on 42.9 percent shooting. After making just 3-of-10 3s in the first quarter, they knocked down 9-of-12 on their way to 43 secondquarter points, topping 60 points in the first half for the fifth time in five games.
Brooks, who had scored at least 15 points in five consecutive games, and Tate each scored 13 in the first half, both knocking down three triples.
The Rockets cooled off a bit but still got to the rim easily in the third quarter. They led by as many as 17 — their largest lead since going up 18 in Brooklyn 24 games earlier — and brought a 105-93 lead to the fourth quarter.
The Rockets had won 14 of the previous 21 games they led after three quarters, but they seemed to be running out of legs after playing so shorthanded for so long.
But the cushion turned out to be large enough for the Rockets to hold on for a long-sought win.