HOUSTON (AP) — The Houston Rockets were up by 14 in the second quarter against the Golden State Warriors when they started missing from 3-point range. They shot themselves all the way from prime position to advance to the NBA Finals to the end of a solid season.
James Harden was the first to miss. Eric Gordon soon bricked one, and P.J. Tucker did the same. It was miss after miss after miss as the cold streak stretched to nine by halftime. There were 14 more in the third quarter in a surprising performance for a team that relied on the 3 all season. By the time Tucker connected with about 6 1/2 minutes left, the Rockets had missed an NBA-record 27 straight 3-pointers and the Warriors were on their way to a 101-92 victory.
Though Gordon believes the result would have been different if Houston had Chris Paul for the last two games of the Western Conference finals, saying: "if he was out there, we'd have been playing on Thursday," the rest of the Rockets agreed that even the nine-time All-Star probably couldn't have changed things on a night their shooting was historically bad.
"It's a grown man's league," Tucker said. "It doesn't matter, next man up. You've got to play. You've got to win. It doesn't matter who plays, step up."
The Rockets led the NBA by making an average of 15.3 3-pointers on their way to a franchise-record 65 wins in their second year in coach Mike D'Antoni's high-octane offense. They made it to the conference finals for the first time since 2015, but were unable to overcome their worst shooting game of the postseason.
Houston made just 7 of 44 attempts in Game 7 on Monday night. Trevor Ariza was 0 for 9. Harden missed his last 11 tries in a 2-for-13 night, and Gordon connected on just 2 of 12 attempts.
"The first half, just our energy defensively was different. That created more opportunities for the 3 and they went in," Harden said. "As a result of that, we got a double-digit lead going into halftime. Those same opportunities were there in the second half, we just didn't make them. They made tough shots. That's it pretty much."
It was a bitter end to a sweet year for Houston.
