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In the span of less than a second, the Houston Rockets went from exhilaration to bitter agony. The Rockets were poised to walk out of Portland with a defining victory and send their playoff series back home to Houston for a Game 7 after Chandler Parson’s put back basket. Instead, watching Damian Lillard hit that last three point shot with 0.9 seconds on the clock to end the Rockets season was another painful chapter in the annals of Houston sports history.
Oscar Wilde once said, “The heart was made to be broken.” Anyone who has had a love affair with Houston teams has had more of their fair share of heartbreak.
The Lorenzo Charles dunk vs. Phi Slama Jama in the ’83 NCAA title game, the John Stockton shot in the ’97 Western Conference Finals, the Jesse Orosco strikeout against Kevin Bass in the 16th inning of the ’86 NLCS, and the Frank Reich inspired comeback in Buffalo that led to Steve Christie OT field goal to beat the Oilers in ’93 … unfortunately, now we can add the Lillard series clinching three to the list.
It was a gut wrenching shot in a pressure packed moment, and credit must first be given to the Portland Trailblazers for playing well and winning this series with their execution. Terry Stotts’ team always seemed to have an answer to any Rockets’ run, and their two star players, Lamarcus Aldridge and Damian Lillard, played like stars.
But how were the Rockets seemingly so unprepared for Damian Lillard to take that last shot in Game 6, knowing he had made game winning threes against the Suns, Pistons and Cavs during the regular season and he was shooting 48.9% beyond the arc in this playoff series? He is the one guy the Rockets shouldn’t have wanted taking the last shot, because he is the Blazers’ star player with the long range touch and only a three could win the game.
The Rockets should have covered Lillard like the paparazzi on a celebrity, but instead he got off a wide open shot. Even Blazers coach Stotts said after the game that he didn’t think Lillard “would come that open.”
It is not surprising that for a Rockets team that had a porous defense throughout the season that their defense would be their undoing. Rockets coach Kevin McHale told his team “no threes” in the huddle, but a defensive lapse left Lillard open to hit the biggest shot yet of his young career.
McHale said in his postgame news conference, “Lillard made a hell of a shot, but we didn’t do a very good job of getting out there on him on the initial runout.” That was an understatement to say the least. Lillard was able to get separation from Parsons and with no one else there to pick him up, he had a clean look at the basket and that was the ballgame.
We can analyze that shot like it is the Zapruder film, but the Rockets just did not execute well enough late in the game to be the victor in this series. Dwight Howard played magnificently throughout the playoffs and was carrying the team on his back in the 4th quarter of Game 6, but the four missed free throws in the closing minutes of the game were costly.
James Harden finally played like a superstar in Game 6, but Portland was able to shut him down in the 4th quarter when the Rockets needed to put distance between themselves and the Blazers.
However, trying to cast Game 6 as the reason why the Rockets lost this series is missing the point. The Rockets had dug themselves a hole in squandering earlier games they should have won. Only three teams in NBA history have come back to win series after losing the first two games at home, and the Rockets were not able to revive the Clutch City magic and become the fourth.
The difficult and depressing thing about elimination is that the Rockets were a championship contender in a wide open Western Conference, and we know from the Yao and T-Mac years you can’t count on the title opportunities always being there from one year to the next.
Now the offseason begins for GM Daryl Morey and the Rockets, and it will be interesting to see the direction the team takes after this bitter early playoff exit. We can be assured James Harden and Dwight Howard will be back, but other than that, the roster could be in flux, especially knowing the way Moneyball disciple Morey likes to maneuver.
Will Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik still be Rockets or will Morey find takers for the $15 million final year of their contracts? Will Carmelo Anthony actually leave Phil Jackson and the Knicks to sign with a team like the Rockets? Should the Rockets stay with the status quo or is there an upgrade out there at the PG position in a Western Conference that matches them up against the likes of Lillard, Chris Paul, Steph Curry and Tony Parker?
Is a developing Terrence Jones enough at power forward or should the Rockets look for a starter with greater size? Will the Rockets find the proper mid-level guys to upgrade their bench? The hard part after playoff disappointment is waiting yet another long year to see if the Rockets can reach the promised land. McHale said at the end of the Blazers series, “What a frustrating way to end the season for us.” Every longtime Houston sports fan can concur.
-R.G. Seal
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