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James Harden comes through late to lead Rockets past Warriors in Game 3

Martin Rogers   | Paste BN
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HOUSTON — Right at the end of a remarkable night, it was James Harden, bloodied eye and all, who finally put the Golden State Warriors away in overtime and made sure the Houston Rockets’ season has at least a couple of breaths left.

Harden had the most Harden kind of nights, with an understated haul of 41 points — if such a thing is possible — but when he uncorked a dagger of a 3 and a running floater moments later, it capped a 126-121 Houston win to pull the Western Conference semifinals back to 2-1.

It wasn’t easy because nothing has been easy for the Rockets in this gritty, grizzly and truly compelling slugfest that has bounced from Oakland to Texas and is now destined to return to the Bay Area at least one more time.

It was virtually forgotten by the end, but with just under three minutes to go in the third quarter, Harden looked to have finished the Warriors off when he danced around the defensive attentions of Kevin Durant, launched a long-range jumper for 3 and opened up an 11-point gap.

Durant could only give a respectful nod. He’d done all he could, both on the play and on the night, and it seemed like Game 3 was going to have an inevitable conclusion, a somewhat redemptive one to keep Houston afloat.

Yet everything is a battle for Houston right now, and so it proved again, even after it looked like the white flag had been hoisted. Just when the Warriors looked like they were done, mired in a dismal shooting slump and with Stephen Curry misfiring with chronic consistency, they weren’t. A mini-run closed the gap to seven by the end of the third quarter, helped by a Curry walk going uncalled — facilitating a Draymond Green 3-pointer.

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And then the Warriors became the Warriors once more, rediscovering their touch and mojo, riding Durant’s sheer excellence and threatening to take a mountainous 3-0 advantage in a series that has, in truth, felt much closer.

Every game has been in the balance, each occasion until this one had seen the two-time defending champions rise tallest to greet it. It helps when you have the tallest tree in the sport to spur you forward in times of greatest need.

But even Durant was not enough to overcome the final Houston flurry, as the Rockets dug and scrapped and found a way to first take it into overtime, then get over the line and retain a puncher’s chance. Durant wants to be acknowledged as basketball’s finest player and at times like these it seems like utter folly to question his unspoken claim to the accolade. He exploded for 10 points in 99 seconds in the opening exchanges of the fourth to turn a roaring Toyota Center crowd into a nervous one. If we are witnessing his final acts in Golden State colors, what theater it is.

However, there are stars in the Houston camp capable of prodigious productivity also. Harden, complete with those streaks of red lacing his pupils, had a final stand of his own to make. His approach is not universally popular, but they love him here, eyes, beard, dramatics and all.

In front of those who appreciate him most, Harden made the decisive contributions in crunch time. He’ll surely need a similar haul on Monday night in Game 4 if Houston is to extinguish its problematic deficit.

The chance to win it in regulation had come and gone when Chris Paul dithered over the final play, eventually getting tied up by Klay Thompson with 1.5 seconds remaining. But Houston was stronger and more composed in overtime, helped by Curry missing everything his attempted. The end came courtesy of a mind-boggling anticlimax: Curry missing uncontested at the rim, seemingly caught between laying the ball in or dunking it, and that was the game.

More drama surely beckons because these teams seem drawn to it, though the most important reality is that, only just, Houston still has everything to play for.

Follow Martin Rogers on Twitter @RogersJourno.

 

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