Rockets on a roll as of late

championships in a Hall of Fame career with the Boston Celtics, said there isn’t any magic formula to winning today. The Rockets simply have to remember why they play the game.

“It’s Game 7. It’s fun man,” McHale said. “That’s what you live for … there’s a joy and a calm that comes over you when you do something really, really well and you’re doing something you’ve done since you’ve been a little kid.”

The Clippers are in the semifinals for the third time in four years and are looking to end the two-game skid to advance to meet the Golden State Warriors.

“We’ve had two opportunities and we haven’t closed it out,” Blake Griffin said. “You have to give them credit, they’ve been playing better than us the last two games and wanted it more clearly. So we’ve got an opportunity and we’ve got to take advantage.”

The Rockets attributed their success Thursday night to a never-quit attitude. Dwight Howard said some of the shots they made in the rally were so crazy it reminded him of a 1990s movie where divine beings help a baseball team win a championship.

“It felt like Angels in the Outfield except the basketball version. Just unbelievable,” Howard said shaking his head.

The Clippers lamented letting Thursday night’s game slip away to force them to try and close out the series on the road.

“We just stopped playing, honestly,” Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said. “The first thing is we let up, you could see it. We got the lead and kind of got comfortable and started making plays that you shouldn’t make that there’s no way you’d make with a one-point lead.”

The Clippers watched portions of the fourth quarter on video Friday, but were done thinking about it by the time they arrived in Houston on Saturday. Rivers is confident his team has moved on from the gut-wrenching loss and doesn’t expect any bad feelings from that game to linger.

“If they do, we’re going to lose,” Rivers said. “The good news for us is we have a chance to win and that game’s forgotten about. We move on and that’s the great thing about sports. You have to. You have no choice.”