NBA 3-point record accompanies setback
Signature offense betrays team down stretch for 2nd straight loss
PORTLAND, Ore. — Despite all evidence to the contrary, the Rockets believed their 3-point touch would return to them Thursday night.
They had made more 3s than any team in NBA history, having broken the Warriors’ year-old record in the first quarter. For all the 3s they missed after, with the game on the line, they fired away.
The Rockets had come back from down 13 to tie the game, but after James Harden put in a 3-pointer with 5:19 left, the Rockets launched six 3-pointers, missing them all, as the Blazers pulled away in the final two minutes for a 117-107 win, giving the Rockets consecutive losses heading into the second half of a back-to-back at Golden State.
Harden led the Rockets with 30 points, but went just 2-of-13 on 3s as the Rockets made just eight of 34 3-pointers.
Damian Lillard had 31 points and 11 assists for the surging Trail Blazers, owners of the NBA’s best record in March.
For all their struggles, the Rockets had rallied in the fourth quarter tie the game. Lou Williams, who had missed his first six shots, scored the Rockets first six points of the fourth quarter, and they were back within seven.
They even cut into that when they finally put in a 3-pointer, with Eric Gordon hitting his third of the night. The Rockets were down just four with 8½ minutes left in a game they had
struggled throught.
The Rocket’ defense had tightened and the Blazers had cooled off from their sizzling 3-point shooting through three quarters.
When Harden put in a 3-pointer with 5:19 remaining, the Rockets were down two and had a good look from Williams to tie the game that had seemed on the brink of a blowout in the third quarter.
The Rockets finally caught the Blazers after Williams put in a pull-up jumper and Trevor Ariza turned his sixth steal of the night to a breakaway with 2½ minutes left.
Jusuf Nurkic put in a layup on a spin move to put the Blazers back in front, but the Rockets were within range if they could just do what they had done all season.
Instead, Harden missed a 3 and Ariza missed another. A pair of C.J. McCollum free throws took the lead to four before Harden again missed from deep, falling to 2-of-12 on 3s.
Lillard added two more free throws and Allen Crabbe stripped Harden, putting in his layup for an eight-point lead with 1:12 remaining. The Rockets never challenged again.
The Rockets had set the NBA record for 3s in a season when Harden dropped in a step-back 3-pointer with 10.1 seconds left in the first quarter, giving the Rockets 1,078 for the season. Fittingly, it also gave Harden his career high of 237 this season. They finished with 1,083.
All that experience winning with 3s, however, meant the Rockets had a vivid understanding of where things had gone wrong on the other end.
The Blazers repeatedly drove into the Rockets defense, sometimes needing just one of two dribbles to draw help defense that left Portland shooters open. The Blazers wer 9-of-16 3-pointers in the first half with the Rockets doing little to take away the good looks the Blazers generated from the opening tip.
The Blazers made 50 percent of their shots in the first half, leading by as much as 12.
With the Rockets so often backpedaling defensively and having to stop to take the ball out of the net, they also played much of the half without the pace so important to their offense.
The Rockets made just 9 of 24 shots in the second quarter when the Blazers built their lead. With the Blazers staying back to take away lobs to the rim, the Rockets misfired on 3s and in mid-range, making just 6 of 22 shots outside the paint.
Had the Rockets scored more reliably, they could have kept pace. But as easily as the Blazers were running their offense, they left the Rockets little margin for error on the other end with the Rockets offense struggling.
The Rockets eventually turned things around, but they never shot well enough to finish their run.