ROCKETS: COMEBACK FALLS SHORT AS BLAZERS END WIN STREAK.
Offense endures tough night with Harden off game
PORTLAND, Ore. — The Rockets kept firing their 3s, chasing the Trail Blazers and believing the wave of scoring that had rescued them so often would come.
They made enough to stay within range, enough to believe the run would come. It never did.
The Trail Blazers answered with one last scoring surge, enough to build a safe cushion and end the Rockets’ winning streak at six games 110-101 on Saturday night at Moda Center.
James Harden scored 29 of his 38 points in the second half, extending his streak of games with at least 35 to 10 consecutive, even as his run of 40-point contests ended at five straight. The Rockets, however, never could slow Jusuf Nurkic enough, as the Blazers center made 11 of 18 shots for his 25 points, with C.J. McCollum adding 24.
Rockets center Clint Capela had 21 rebounds and Austin Rivers had a season-high 21 points. But after being down by 16, the Rockets never could sustain a run to put pressure on the Blazers and extend the streak.
The Rockets had spent much of the game trying to kick-start their offense, never quite catching the usual wave of scoring. But with Harden lighting up the third quarter and enough scoring when he sat for two minutes to start the fourth, the Rockets had reduced a 16-point Blazers lead to five with nine minutes left. They had not found their 3-point touch, missing their next five shots as the Blazers pushed the lead back to 12.
Having spent the night climbing out of doubledigit deficits and to within a chance, the Rockets put together another run. Capela took a Harden pass to a slam and made a free throw. Gerald Green drove to a dunk, cutting the lead to seven with 4:24 left.
By then, the Rockets were not getting stops and the usual expectation that they will outscore teams scoring two points at a time was not working with the 3s so hard to come by. They found a way to stay in the game deep into the first half on the strength of the play around Harden, no small feat with Chris Paul and Eric Gordon out.
Rivers put in a seasonhigh five 3-pointers in the half, scoring 17 points. When Harden returned and put in a technical free throw after a defensive three-second violation, the Rockets held their largest lead at 43-39.
Still, the Rockets seemed to need Harden to find himself, or were living on borrowed time.
Harden could not escape his first-half struggles, making just three of 15 shots, missing all eight of his 3s, and getting five turnovers with just one assist and no rebounds. He spent much of the half frustrated when he did not get calls on drives as the Blazers outscored the Rockets by 16 when he was on the floor.
But the Rockets collapsed in other ways to end the half, as Portland rolled through a 20-3 charge in the final 4½ minutes, scoring the final 13 points of the half to build a 59-46 lead.
Until that burst, the Rockets had been defending the Blazers well, but were so often caught in mismatches on switches, the Blazers crashed the boards, scoring 12 secondchance points in the first half, more than the Rockets had been allowing per game in their winning streak.
The Rockets did have recent experience in coming back in the second half, having trailed the Warriors by 17 at halftime Thursday, one of four double-digit comebacks this season. They seemed to have a chance at another when Harden began the second half with a pair of 3s.
When Harden ended the third quarter with a drive to a three-point play and a jumper, the Rockets crept to within nine heading into the fourth. Harden had scored 20 in the third quarter to keep the Rockets in the game, just as the scorers around him had in the first half.
The Rockets even closed to within five when Green cut to a dunk with nine minutes left. But they had not strung together a burst of outside shooting to complete a run.