Stinging loss more than about a foul finish
The Rockets believed they had done enough to win. They will forever believe that a bad whistle with just a sliver of time left took the win from their grasp and allowed Kings star De’Aaron Fox to claim it.
They chose their words carefully, avoiding the wrath of the NBA quote police, but left no doubt that they thought that the final whistle, a three-shot foul called on now former Rocket Eric Gordon with .3 left, was wrong and that Fox’s missed 3-pointer should have ended the game.
Instead, Fox went to the line, made all three free throws and left the Rockets’ stunned by a 130-128 loss Wednesday to the Sacramento Kings.
Yet as much as the final whistle brought the close call they could not overcome, and as well as the Rockets had played relative to the disheartening blowout losses of their previous two games, they had done enough to need only to do just a touch more to slam the door. They couldn’t.
That, as much as the final, stunning call, cost the win the Rockets so desperately wanted and thought they had.
“I always feel that … it should not have come down to that last play,” Rockets coach Stephen Silas said after the Rockets committed nine fourth-quarter turnovers, three in the final minute that began with them holding a five-point lead. “We clean those plays up, it’s a whole, totally different game. But we fought back.”
They thought they had escaped the mistakes. Kings forward Harrison Barnes inbounded with 1.2 seconds left, getting the ball to Fox in time only to catch and shoot a deep 3. Gordon cut behind Fox. Fox’s shot banged off the backboard. The Toyota Center crowd roared, drowning out the sound of official Ray Acosta’s whistle.
Gordon was called for fouling Fox from behind.
“The video shows it, the video shows it,” Gordon said. “I knew he was going to get the ball. I’m not going to get in trouble, but the video will show you. I went to go avoid (him). It’d be different if I was running into him.
“When he already shot, his leg hit my body, but my plan was to go right by him.”
As officials reviewed the video to be sure the foul was before time expired, Silas shook his head and “No way. No way. Nothing. Nothing.”
Of Gordon going behind Fox to contest the shot, Silas said, “I thought Eric played it great.”
Cypress Lakes graduate Fox, however, said, “He definitely got me on my back.”
The Rockets did not have a challenge remaining, having used it with 52.4 seconds left. But it likely would not have mattered if they did.
In a pool report, crew chief Gediminas Petraitis said, “Gordon makes illegal contact to the lower body of Fox, effecting his ability to land safely.
“There was no doubt on the floor that the call was correct. And after postgame video review the call on the floor of a defensive foul is confirmed.”
Yet, the Rockets could have easily kept the game from coming down to a close call.
They had surged late with Jalen Green nailing his sixth 3-pointer, matching his season high before swishing a tough, running jumper and finishing a sudden bolt of a drive. That gave him 41 points, one shy of his career high, and the Rockets a 128-123 lead with 67 seconds left.
The Rockets even put together three consecutive stops against the team that had averaged 138 points in the first three meetings.
The Rockets never scored again, turning the ball over in three of their final four possessions.
With 57.8 seconds, Fox stripped Green just inside the midcourt line and went in for a breakaway dunk.
With 52.4 seconds left, K.J. Martin took off for a dunk only to slam into the Kings’ Keegan Murray for an offensive foul. The Rockets challenged the call, but it was unsuccessful. Fox needed less than 10 seconds to sink a floater to pull the Kings to within one with 42.9 seconds left.
Green missed a fadeaway jumper, but the Rockets again seemed to get the stop they needed. Malik Monk missed a runner. Domantas Sabonis missed a follow. Martin blocked a Murray tip.
Murray tied up Martin on the rebound, but with five seconds left, Martin won the jump ball when it was ruled out of bounds off Fox. The Rockets took possession with the lead and just 2.4 seconds left to make it stand.
They could not. After Gordon was fouled on the initial inbounds play, Alperen Sengun tried to inbound the ball to Martin. Monk cut him off and stole the inbounds pass cleanly before time could slip away. The Kings had a final possession with 1.2 seconds left.
Until that final minute, however, the Rockets had a win to ease the pain of particularly bad losses in their sights.
Instead, they were forced to consider whether to be more encouraged by playing so much better than in the previous games or even more disappointed to walk off with a loss anyway.
“Very, very disappointing, very disappointing way,” Silas said.