By: Forrest Walker
They say the close losses hurt the most. Games you could have, should have won sting the most going into the locker room, when you have to look at your teammates, look at the standings, look at that one mistake you shouldn't have made on tape. That's the sort of loss the Houston Rockets felt tonight, losing a tight game to a very good Oklahoma City Thunder team. The bad news is that this one will stay with them. The good news is that this one will stay with them. This was a brutal, close loss, and we should all be thankful for it. If they're going to lose, this is the way to do it.
The fact that the Utah Jazz have a chance to usurp the Rockets' playoff spot doesn't help. The fact that this loss puts the Rockets that much farther behind the raw, less talented Trail Blazers and the aging, injury-riddled Dallas Mavericks doesn't help either. That doesn't even consider the fact that the Grizzlies don't have an NBA team and are still staying out of Houston's reach. Those are all problems with the season, parts of the cave system the Rockets dug themselves into early in the season. Today, they played like an NBA team, a real one even. Today hurts in a better way that silly losses do Denver or Brooklyn. It's still pain, but at least you got out of bed to feel it.
The Thunder needed yet another triple double from Westbrook to pull this one out, and even then it was dicey. The Rockets actually defended most of the time, despite how the score looks. The Thunder, for all their wins, for all their talent, are beatable. In a seven game series, this makes the Rockets feel like they have a shot against them, whether that's realistic or not. They may have to actually win some games at some point, but their schedule does actually include teams lower than 3 seed eventually, trust me. This game was a real NBA game, and it should make them feel like real NBA players again.
Before we move on, let's go over the hilarity of the +/- section of that box score. The best rating for Houston was a tie between Beverley, Harden and Capela, all of whom notched +1. The worst was Jason Terry with a -7 despite his 2-3 three pointers and 3-6 overall. He simply happened to be around during some truly powerful stretches by Russell Westbrook. The Thunder, meanwhile, had an even stranger chart. Andre Roberson had a game-worst -14 despite shooting 2-3 and notching a rebound, an assist, a steal and a block. Maybe his 5 fouls did him in. Meanwhile, Randy Foye was a game-best +12. He scored 0 points on 0-5 shooting, picked up an assist and 2 steals and fouled twice. Westbrook, for his part, ended up with a -5. I guess that 7-18 shooting really offset the 13 rebounds and 15 assists. +/- is weird.
The two teams actually had very similar stats. Nobody had a marked advantage in rebounds, steals, or turnovers. The Rockets actually won the block game 7-3 and shot 25.1% from deep compared to OKC's 22.9%. The only place where the Rockets fell apart was in fouls and free throws. Not counting the two late-game fouls and 4 free throws which were intentional, the Rockets lodged 8 more fouls than Oklahoma City and shot 8 fewer free throws. That's not even that huge of a discrepancy, but it was enough to swing a very close game the Thunder's way.
In terms of individual performance, James Harden was easily the star, despite his 7-17 shooting. His 24 points, 7 rebounds, 16 assists and 4 steals were right in line with Westbrook's own numbers. Dwight Howard, almost matched up with the Thunder's second star, Kevin Durant. Durant went 8-19 to score 23 points to go with 7 rebounds and 4 assists. Howard only needed 8 shots to notch 16 points to go with 13 boards and 2 assists. The top of the talent pile was actually very evenly matched. The big difference was in bench scoring, in which Dion Waiters' 17 (sure) led the Thunder bench to 40 points vs Beasley's 11 only helped the Rockets bench get to 27. Corey Brewer's 1-6 shooting was a large part of that, and the bench's perennial inability to shoot continues to damn the Rockets. What once was a premier bench has become a pit of despair this season, and a shortened playoff rotation (should they make the playoffs) can only help the team.
This was an eminently winnable game, and the Rockets must absolutely be kicking themselves for not winning it. They should kick themselves. Maybe at some point, it'll lead to something. To their credit, the team has looked a lot better in recent months, and have at times even looked like the very credible team from last season. A strong last push isn't out of the question. More importantly, however, they have to regain their dignity. In losing in such a painful, heartbreaking fashion, perhaps they've won back a little bit of self-respect.