Written by James Herbert at CBSSports.com
The Houston Rockets took Game 3 against the Golden State Warriors on Thursday, led by a monster performance from James Harden. The Warriors lead 2-1 in the series despiteStephen Curry missing the past two games with an ankle injury.
Things to know:
1. The Beard can still win you a playoff game … especially if the other team is missing the MVP. Harden was unbelievable for the final couple of months of the regular season, and he looked like that guy again. The numbers: 35 points on 11-of-26 shooting, nine assists, eight rebounds and two steals.
In the fourth, he made three monster plays. The biggest one, obviously, was the mid-range jumper over Andre Iguodala — yeah, he pushed him off, too — that gave the Rockets the win. The bench didn’t appear too excited, however:
For 99 percent of NBA players, that’s an incredibly difficult play. Houston didn’t have any timeouts and had to go coast to coast. One of the best defenders on the planet was in the way. Harden, though, is more than capable of getting a bucket in any one-on-one situation.
Before that, Harden hit Draymond Green with a few dribble moves then drained an above-the-key 3-pointer in his face. Harden then stared at Green and smiled, and Green couldn’t help but smile back.
Aaaaand Harden threw down a mean lefty dunk in traffic.
2. Charles Barkley was wrong. At halftime, with the Rockets up 55-48, the TNT analyst guaranteed they would manage to lose the game by double digits.
This was a hilarious, bold statement, but it did not turn out to be true. Yes, the Warriors made a run and took a late lead, but hey, Houston didn’t completely collapse. That’s a small victory.
Rockets CEO Tad Brown didn’t appreciate Barkley’s remarks, by the way.
3. Klay Thompson can’t make 3s against the Rockets for some reason. The lone Splash Brother in uniform missed all seven of his 3-point attempts at the Toyota Center, and his shot was off in the first two games at Oracle Arena, too. He’s now 5 for 21 from deep in this series, after shooting just 30.4 percent from 3-point range against Houston in the regular season.
Honestly, I don’t have much of an explanation here. It seems random. Some of Thompson’s shots were a little rushed, but then there he was with about two minutes left, on the right wing, zero defenders anywhere near him. Golden State was down by one, and he just missed it.
4. Ian Clark was almost a fourth-quarter hero. The reserve guard came up big for the Warriors in the final frame, scoring nine points on 4-for-5 shooting in a less-than-seven-minute stretch. Clark hit two go-ahead shots in crunch time, a floater and a transition layup.
Clark had five assists in the game, too. If Harden hadn’t made that shot over Iguodala, then Clark would be the story here.
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