{"id":59462,"date":"2020-09-03T09:50:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-03T06:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/james-hardens-late-block-leads-rockets-to-game-7-win-over-thunder\/"},"modified":"2020-09-03T09:50:00","modified_gmt":"2020-09-03T06:50:00","slug":"james-hardens-late-block-leads-rockets-to-game-7-win-over-thunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/james-hardens-late-block-leads-rockets-to-game-7-win-over-thunder\/","title":{"rendered":"#James Harden\u2019s late block leads Rockets to Game 7 win over Thunder"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#James Harden\u2019s late block leads Rockets to Game<\/a> 7 win over Thunder<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. \u2014 James Harden couldn\u2019t get his shot to fall all night, so the scorer turned stopper.<\/p>\n

In this wild Game 7 that took one strange turn after another in the final seconds, the biggest play came when a guy known almost entirely for his offense turned up the defense.<\/p>\n

Harden made up for a miserable shooting night with a big blocked shot, Russell Westbrook scored 20 points against his former team and the Houston Rockets edged the Oklahoma City Thunder 104-102 on Wednesday night to win the first-round series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one of those nights offensively so I just wanted to change the game defensively and I think I did that,\u201d Harden said.<\/p>\n

The Rockets pulled out a tense final game of the first round that lasted long past the final basket as replays and fouls were sorted out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been around a long time and just at the end it was a little crazy,\u201d Houston coach Mike D\u2019Antoni said.<\/p>\n

In the end, Houston prevailed to set up a second-round matchup with the Los Angeles Lakers that begins Friday despite Harden, the NBA\u2019s leading scorer, going 4 for 15 from the field.<\/p>\n

\"James<\/img>
James Harden (left) celebrates after making a late block on Lu Dort during the Rockets\u2019 104-102 series-clinching win over the Thunder in Game 7.<\/span>EPA<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThese are the games, you want to win a championship or win playoff games, you\u2019ve got to do it with your heart,\u201d D\u2019Antoni added. <\/p>\n

The frantic final seconds of a game that was tight throughout had Houston take the lead for good at 103-102 when P.J. Tucker scored with 1:25 remaining. After changes of possession, the Thunder got the ball to Lu Dort, who attempted a 3-pointer that Harden blocked with 4.8 seconds left.<\/p>\n

Robert Covington made a free throw with 1.4 seconds to go and Harden was whistled for fouling Danilo Gallinari before the ball was inbounded, giving the Thunder one free throw and the ball. But Gallinari missed the free throw and the Thunder turned it over on the last inbounds pass.<\/p>\n

Westbrook helped defend that, perhaps remembering some of his old coach\u2019s plays.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of know a little bit,\u201d Westbrook said.<\/p>\n

Covington had 21 points and 10 rebounds, and Eric Gordon also scored 21 points for the Rockets. Harden finished with 17 points and nine assists.<\/p>\n

Dort scored a career-best 30 points for the Thunder. Chris Paul, swapp<\/a>ed for Westbrook over the summer, had 19 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tough one. It\u2019s tough,\u201d Paul said. \u201cWe fought hard all year. Honestly, a lot of people doubted us, but we didn\u2019t doubt ourselves. We didn\u2019t give a damn about anybody\u2019s predictions going into any series.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a wild conclusion to a strange series in which the Rockets won Games 1 and 2 handily and Game 5 by 34, the biggest margin in franchise postseason history, but hadn\u2019t come through in the close ones. Oklahoma City took Game 3 in overtime by outscoring Houston 15-3, the largest overtime point differential in NBA history, and pulled out Game 4 by three points and Game 6 by four.<\/p>\n

The Rockets had no chance of winning this one in a rout thanks largely to Harden\u2019s struggles. He missed 10 of his 12 shots through three quarters but they were ahead 85-80 behind a strong performance from Westbrook, who missed the first four games of the series with a strained right quadriceps.<\/p>\n

Covington then hit a couple key 3-pointers in the fourth and Harden made two of his three shots in the period, including a basket that snapped a 99-all tie.<\/p>\n

The Thunder closed the first quarter with a 10-2 spurt to take a 30-29 lead. Then it was Dort with a 12-point second quarter, hitting three 3-pointers to continue a remarkable turnaround from Game 5, when his 3-for-16 night included going 0 for 9 behind the arc. He bounced back with 13 points in Game 6.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one of the most impressive things I\u2019ve seen out of a player that young,\u201d Thunder coach Billy Donovan said.<\/p>\n

One of his 3s gave the Thunder a six-point lead, but Houston closed strong to lead 61-59 at the break.<\/p>\n

Houston got the final five points of the third on a basket by Westbrook and a 3-pointer by Jeff Green, another former Oklahoma City player.\n <\/p><\/div>\n

\n

If you want to read more Sports News<\/a> articles, you can visit our General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

if you want to watch Movies or Tv Shows go to Dizi.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a> <\/span> for forums sites go to Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#James Harden\u2019s late block leads Rockets to Game 7 win over Thunder” LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. \u2014 James Harden couldn\u2019t get his shot to fall all night, so the scorer turned stopper. In this wild Game 7 that took one strange turn after another in the final seconds, the biggest play came when a guy…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[63860],"class_list":["post-59462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-james-hardens-late-block-leads-rockets-to-game-7-win-over-thunder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}