Biggest key is the three — point guards, that is

Houston has the three ball. OKC has the three guards.

The biggest strengths of these two teams are well established. Houston shoots from deep and never stops. Oklahoma City attacks with a three-headed point-guard monster. When both are going at a high level like they have the past couple games of this playoff series, it's super entertaining.

But when one falters, we get what we got Saturday. A complete and total dud. Rockets 114, Thunder 80. On a night this best-of-seven series swung in Houston's favor — OKC will face elimination Monday in Game 6 — it was the three point guards who did in the Thunder. Chris Paul, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Dennis Schröder, so good for so much of this season, were nowhere near good enough.

Three guys who combined to average 55.5 points a game in the regular season had a combined 39 points. They had more turnovers (10) than assists (eight). They didn't attack the Rockets the way they did the past two games. Ugly any way you slice it. “I think I mentioned before the game one of the things I was concerned about was our rhythm and how we would get back into playing,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said, referring to the three-day pause the NBA took to focus on issues of racial justice and equality. “This was a game that was probably more like Games 1 or 2.”

Those Thunder losses were clunkers, especially offensively. Too much standing around. Too little ball movement. Too many outside shots.

But the Thunder turned the series around in Games 3 and 4, and while Lu Dort's defense on Rocket man James Harden was key to that, the biggest difference was in the three point guards. Look at their combined stats throughout the series, and you can see the difference between wins and losses.

Game 1: 35 points on 12 of 34 shooting, minus-29.

Game 2: 58 points on 20 of 44 shooting, minus-29.

Game 3: 78 points on 30 of 61 shooting, plus-38.

Game 4: 74 points on 27 of 52 shooting, plus-12.

Game 5: 39 points on 14 of 36 shooting, minus-46.

“We have to play with really good spacing, we've gotta play downhill, and we've gotta play fast,” Donovan said. “I thought at times, we got stagnant. I thought at times, our spacing wasn't great. And I thought for a good position of the game, they were the more aggressive team.”

The Rockets were the ones getting to the basket, pushing the pace or driving the lane, and as a result, they outscored the Thunder in the paint, 44-34.

OKC isn't likely to best Houston from behind the arc, so the Thunder has to at least match what the Rockets get at the basket. Getting beat by double digits there happened for several reasons, but a lot of it sits at the feet of Paul, Gilgeous-Alexander and Schröder. They have to be the aggressors on offense, and they can't let their Rocket counterparts get to the basket.

SGA had a particularly brutal night defensively, even drawing a stern talking-to by Paul at one point to stay in front of his man.

Now, Schröder was good when he was on the court. He was just about the only Thunder who was, shredding the Rockets' defense and scoring 19 points.

But on a hard, illegal screen by P.J. Tucker midway through the third quarter, Schröder swung his arm into an area of Tucker's body that you can't go swinging your arm into. Tucker was none too happy and responded by headbutting Schröder.

Tucker got a technical foul and an ejection.

Schröder got a flagrant-2 foul, and he was ejected as well.

Both were fined $25,000 on Sunday.

When you are the best player on your team, you just have to stay on the court. About the only way it seemed the Rockets were going to be able to slow down Schröder was to get him out of the game. He did it for them. He has to be more mindful, more disciplined than that.

The Thunder was already taking on water when he was ejected, but that sunk OKC.

Schröder, Gilgeous-Alexander and Paul weren't the only ones to blame.

Dort, so masterful defensively on Harden, took too many shots. Worse, he took too many early in the shot clock.

Danilo Gallinari took too few shots. He only shot five and only scored one point. Yes, one. The Thunder has to get more from him.

But even if Gallinari plays more like he did early in the series and Dort stops taking bad shots, none of that will matter if Paul, Gilgeous-Alexander and Schröder aren't better. Better on offense. Better on defense.

This series has shown that for these Thunder, they are the three who are key.