A historically bad shooting night crushed the Houston Rockets’ bid to beat the Golden State Warriors in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals on Monday night.
The Rockets missed a playoff record 27 straight 3-point shot attempts during Game 7. They were 7-for-44 (15.9 percent) on threes for the game.
The Rockets got out to a first half lead, outscoring the Warriors in each of the first two quarters. But things went south in the second half for the second straight game, with the Warriors outscoring Houston for a comeback 101-92 win.
Eric Gordon made a three at 6:43 in the second quarter to put Houston up 42-28. After that, the Rockets went around 24 minutes in game time before making another three. It wasn’t until 6:28 in the fourth that PJ Tucker made a three to break the slump. Houston went the entire third quarter without making a three.
Because they were struggling so badly on threes, the Rockets finally started going for two-point baskets halfway through the fourth quarter. But because of Golden State’s hack-a-Capela strategy and the limited time left, it was too little too late. Houston needed threes to get back into the game, but they were scared to take them because of their cold streak.
Once again, the Rockets missed Chris Paul’s leadership when it counted. You can’t help but feel like he might have made a difference.
