Harden's late jumper holds off Warriors' furious rally for Game 3 win
At first the question was whether the Houston Rockets could even build a lead against the defending NBA champions. And once that was answered, by virtue of a 55-48 halftime advantage against the Golden State Warriors, it became of matter of sustaining it.
The Rockets, who led by 14 halfway through the third quarter, needed a clutch turnaround jumper from James Harden with two seconds remaining to stave off a huge Warriors rally and hang on 97-96 in Game 3 of their first-round series. Golden State still leads the series 2-1.
"I missed about 20 shots before that," Harden said. "I work on it every single day."
Harden’s bucket — the last two of his game-high 35 points — came on the heels of a botched inbounds pass underneath the Rockets’ basket that nearly cost them the game. Up 95-94 with 13 seconds left, Rockets forward Trevor Ariza tossed a pass to no man’s land that led to an easy fastbreak layup for Ian Clark. The Warriors momentarily held the lead before Harden buried his jumper with Andre Iguodala draped all over him. Whether he extended a forearm to create some space will surely be debated.
The Warriors, despite missing Steph Curry for the second consecutive game and an off night from several starters, had one final chance to win, but Draymond Green didn’t catch an open inbounds pass cleanly, and the ball deflected off his leg out of bounds.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr said the loss would have no impact on whether Curry would play Game 4.
"If Steph’s hurt, he’s not going to play," Kerr said bluntly.
Despite an awful night from Green, whose final miscue was his seventh turnover of the game, and an equally insignificant game from Harrison Barnes, the Warriors still clawed back. As a team, they shot 6-for-25 from three-point range, but Marreese Speights had a playoff career-high 22 points and Clark added 11, many down the stretch. Shaun Livingston, starting in place of Curry, scored 16, including a run of three consecutive jumpers to cut the deficit to 81-80.
It would be unfair to extrapolate the Rockets’ improved hustle on Thursday and say it masked their season-long issues, but there was a definite sense of focus from their end. That was evident in their 52-43 rebounding advantage, 13 of which came from Dwight Howard to pair with his 13 points. Fellow big man Donatas Motiejunas also had a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds, but the story was the Rockets’ resolve.
From a sizable halftime lead to an even bigger second-half cushion, the Rockets narrowly avoided a deflating defeat. They get a chance to prove on Sunday that it was no fluke.
"Same kind of effort, same kind of intensity," Harden said. "We gotta knock down some more shots."