Rally keeps home run alive
Gordon, Harden lead comeback as team records 13th straight win at Toyota Center
The Rockets were sinking rapidly, which was the only thing they were doing in a hurry.
They were a step behind defensively. They were studying the Clippers’ trapping defense as if examining a lab experiment. They were down 12. The Clippers were rolling too easily to even taunt the Rockets as they had so joyously in Los Angeles.
The time out came just five minutes into the second half, bringing a few of the usual substitutions.
It was as if Mike D’Antoni unplugged the Rockets to reboot them. Nothing came easily. It was not that sort of game. But with a jolt of energy, the Rockets needed two minutes to replace the deficit and
never looked back, surging past the Clippers 101-96 on Thursday night at Toyota Center sparked nearly entirely by that sudden burst that changed everything.
The win, coupled with the Spurs’ win against the Pelicans,
clinched the Southwest Division championship, the Rockets’ sixth division title. But no one cared, or even seemed to know, about that.
“Not this year,” Eric Gordon said. “We want that No. 1 seed. That’s the goal right now.”
The win pushed the Rockets’ home winning streak to 13 games, the third-longest in franchise history, and returned their lead on the Warriors for the top seed to two games.
It rarely seemed, however, likely to be a night the Rockets would turn things around. The Rockets had been unable to knock down the shots the Clippers left open while trapping James Harden and protecting the lane. They never kept the Clippers from getting to the rim on drives.
They did, however, find a shooter, with Gordon hitting a seasonhigh seven 3-pointers on a night the rest of the Rockets combined to hit just 5 of 32 attempts from deep. And they found something to turn the Clippers away at the rim, with Clint Capela getting four of his career-high six blocked shots in the third quarter when the Rockets made their run.
“I was trying to help on everything that I could,” said Capela, who added 12 rebounds and 19 points that with his six blocked shots made him the first player to put up those numbers against DeAndre Jordan in a game in which Jordan played more than four minutes. “I really got ready to help every single time and tonight I was really good at it.”
Still, the Rockets needed the burst when they returned from that second-half time out facing their largest deficit. They started with a James Harden drive before Luc Mbah a Moute sank a pair of free throws. Gordon hit consecutive 3-pointers and then found Capela on a break as the Rockets scored 12 points in a two-minute rush to tie the game.
“We came out pretty soft that third quarter,” Capela said. “After that time out, we came back from another game.”
After a Clippers time out, Harden was fouled, with his two free throws put the Rockets in front. They never trailed again. Clippers coach Doc Rivers, however, took issue with how often Harden and the Rockets went to the line while his team didn’t.
“They shot 41 3s; we shot 18,” Rivers said. We doubled them in the amount of points in the paint and it was 24-8 in free throws. That’s a joke. That is a complete joke. I thought our guys drove and got hit all game. Lou (Williams) down the stretch got killed on a play and no call. Austin (Rivers) gets hit and no call. D.J. (Jordan) gets fouled over the back.
“For them to shoot that many more free throws than us and we’re the team attacking, it doesn’t make basketball sense to me.”
The Rockets felt that they had finally gotten aggressive with 14 of their 23 free throws coming after their surge to the lead.
“Our energy was so low,” Mbah a Moute said. “It was just about that. We knew we just needed a couple stops to get going. Once we did that and saw a couple shots go in, the energy picked up.”
Capela gave them the stops and Gordon the shots. When the Clippers rallied to within two in the final minute, Harden dropped in a step-back jumper with 29.4 seconds left to give them the victory.
“It wasn’t pretty, but we’ll take it,” Harden said. “As long as we can just grind out for four quarters, it’s going to be tough for teams to keep up with us.”