Almost everything else goes right
3-point shooting fails in fourth as Brogdon propels Indiana with career-high 35 points
Malcolm Brogdon’s 3-pointer danced on the rim and popped above it. It kissed the backboard and returned to the rim and finally fell.
The Rockets had corrected nearly everything Wednesday night. They improved their defense. They got to the rim. And with the lead changing hands throughout the second half, they brought the game to the final minutes.
They just never could solve the Indina Pacers’ point guard.
In a matchup of star backcourts, Brogdon lifted the Pacers to a 114-107 victory at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, scoring a career-high 35 points and, with his final 3, offering a reminder of what the Rockets lacked.
The Rockets had overcome most of their issues along the way. But in the fourth quarter, when Brodgon’s rim-hopping 3-pointer put Indiana back in front 109-107 with 2:22 remaining, the Rockets could not hit shots from deep.
They missed all seven 3-pointers they put up in the fourth
quarter and their final nine in the game. After going 8-of-30 on 3-pointers Wednesday, the Rockets are making just 32.6 percent this season. After leading the NBA in 3pointers in five of six seasons, their average of 12 per game would drop them to a tie for 20th.
“I think we’re creating good shots,” Rockets coach Stephen Silas said. “We’re moving the ball to get good shots. They’re just not falling right now.”
Without that part of their offensive arsenal, the Rockets would need nearly everything else to go right. The Pacers would not allow it.
The Rockets had improved defensively throughout much of the game, limiting Indiana to 52 second-half points. They blocked 12 shots, six in the fourth quarter. They attacked the rim, scoring 62 points in the paint.
But with the game tied, Eric Gordon missed a wide-open corner 3, and the Pacers outscored the Rockets 11-4 in the final four minutes. In the Pacers’ final 8-0 run, the Rockets missed three more 3s.
“We just didn’t finish strong enough,” Rockets guard James Harden said.
Even after rushing to an early 10-point lead, the Rockets had long since spent their margin for error. The Pacers had opened the game making just 3 of 9 shots, but even then, they were getting good looks. When those shots began falling, especially when Silas went to his bench, the Pacers turned the double-digit deficit to an 11-point lead.
Facing a trapping defensive for a second consecutive game, Harden moved the ball but never seemed to find a rhythm. He made just 5 of 14 shots after going 5- of-17 against the Mavericks and said he is “fine” after missing Saturday’s game with a sprained ankle.
“Teams are doing things tomake it hard on him,” Silas said. “They’re trapping him. They’re crowding him. He’s making the right plays. He had 12 assists.”
Unlike in Monday’s game, the Rockets did a good job taking advantage of the room to attack the paint when the Pacers devoted extra attention to Harden.
David Nwaba started a second consecutive game with Danuel House Jr. out with back spasms and had 15 points. John Wall had a season-high 28 points, going 12-of-17 in the paint.
With Christian Wood out with a sore left knee, DeMarcus Cousins started at center and was productive, getting 14 rebounds in 23 minutes before he sat out the fourth quarter as Silas went entirely with small lineups to spread the floor and switch everything.
For much of the quarter, that worked well.
The Rockets had a 12-2 run to end the third quarter and start the fourth, taking their first lead since the first quarter. After the Pacers went up by five, the Rockets got shots at the rim on six consecutive possessions, connecting on five of them.
Even with the Pacers’ Myles Turner blocking eight shots, the Rockets made 64.5 percent of their shots in the paint. And when he came to help from the weak side, they moved the ball to open looks from the 3-point line.
“We had a lot of open shots he was giving up because he was coming to block shots,” Wall said of Turner. “A lot of those wide-open 3s we got in the corner, where he was helping from. We’d live with those shots. We just missed them.”
The Rockets led again with Harden finishing a drive with 2:37 left. But then Brogdon made the 3-pointer the Rockets could not, leaving them unable to keep pace in the final minutes and unable to explain why what they had so long done best they could no longer.
“I’m not sure,” Harden said of the missing 3point-shooting touch. “We’re getting some good looks.”
They just could not make enough to match a shooter on his best night.