Jason Terry helped his Houston Rockets immensely by shutting down CP3 (Chris Paul), Rockets move on to the NBA Western Conference Finals for the first time in 18 years.
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Houston came out guns blaring today in the seventh game in the series between the Rockets and the Clippers in front of a sellout crowd of 18,463. The Rockets wanted to accomplish what hasn’t been done in 18 years; win the Conference Semifinals.
The first quarter was pretty even, Houston was no more than five points ahead through most of the quarter. Seemed that the Clippers were just giving away the game. At the end of the quarter Doc Rivers told his team “We gotta dig in, not just Blake, but all of us” and the Clippers started to show a little life, at least Chris Paul tried.
The second quarter was more of the same, mostly an 8-10 point deficit for Los Angeles throughout the quarter.
Start of the third quarter, one would think the Clippers would come out with more energy but it was hard to find. It seemed the game plan was to get the ball into Blake Griffin to muscle his way to the basket for a dunk or lay-up, but that wasn’t working as he would either miss the basket or lose the ball.
Houston fell asleep at the wheel for a little while around the mid third quarter, Jason Terry received his third foul. Josh Smith decided it was his time to step up, and did! The score going into the fourth quarter on a three pointer by James Harden Houston 85-68.
Apr 24, 2015; Dallas, TX, USA; Houston Rockets guard Pablo Prigioni (9) in action against the Dallas Mavericks in game three of the first round of the NBA Playoffs at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
The gap in the score got wider and wider in the beginning of the fourth quarter when the spread increased to 20 points. Pablo Prigioni, dubbed the “The old man” by the radio announcers, subbed in for “The Jet” and stepped it up with a couple great plays including a couple of steals from Blake Griffin.
Throughout the game it was clear how important Jason Terry is to the Houston Rockets, his defense is stifling at times for Chris Paul. It was obvious in the sixth game, Chris Paul could not get much going much like game seven. Dwight Howard had come through as well in this game; he made 15 Rebounds, 13 of them defensive and recorded his 15th double-double.
Both teams ran out of fouls, so hack-a-Howard and hack-a-Jordan tactics could definitely come into play. Trevor Ariza had hit six threes in the game, his fifth brought Houston’s lead to 16 points with 3:38 to go. It seems that shooting three’s successfully is working for teams in the post season, Jalen Rose agrees.
The 5 teams that led the NBA in made 3's are still playing. Rockets, Warriors, Clips, Cavs and Hawks. Game has officially changed.
— Jalen Rose (@JalenRose) May 17, 2015
The last time Houston has won the Conference Semifinals was in 1997 against the Seattle Supersonics. Houston had actually won the NBA Championships in 1994 and 1995.
CP3 committed an offensive foul and the Houston Rockets radio announcers went crazy saying “Finally they caught CP3.” The score at this point was 99-83 Houston; a 16 point lead with five minutes to go. Cory Brewer scored seven points in the fourth; every Rocket player was contributing.
Former Bruin Matt Barnes seemed non-existent until he decided to try to take out Harden and got called for his fourth foul. Remember Matt Barnes had shouted an expletive towards Harden’s mom and was fined for it. The spread came down to 10 points, when Houston called a time-out with 2:25 to play, the Clippers had score seven straight points.
Coming out of the time out Dwight Howard stayed on the bench to avoid the hack tactic. Jason Terry came back into the game with his great defense. With 1:26 to go, Deandre Jordan was fouled and hit his free throws, Houston 104-96. Chris Paul jumped on Dwights back to foul him immediately. Dwight missed both of his free throws, score remained the same. All this and only 1 second came off the clock.
Patrick Beverley hit Chris Paul with the Mutumbo finger wag https://t.co/KI0UKbHprt
— AP (@Ananth_Pandian) May 17, 2015
Arizona Wildcats
Trevor Ariza hit his sixth three pointer, sticking a possible dagger in the Clippers heart. Crawford answered with a jumper, Chris Paul forced to foul again to stop the clock by fouling Harden giving Paul five fouls. DeAndre Jordan was pretty impressive through the game shooting 7-of-10 for 16 points. He also had 17 rebounds, 4 steals, and 3 blocks late into the 4th quarter.
Rockets were up by 11 after Harden made his free throws, 45.6 seconds to go in the game. Former Bruin Trevor Ariza came through with a clutch rebound, Houston passed the ball around taking time off the clock.
With only 18 seconds to go Chris Paul decided it was over and started to congratulate the Rocket players and proceeded with his starters to return back to their benches and received a standing ovation.
The Rockets came from behind a three games to one deficit to beat the favored Clippers winning three games in a row to win a playoff series. It’s the ninth time in NBA history that a team has accomplished this feat. The Rockets organization handed out red t-shirts with the word “Clutch City” in big bold yellow letters before the game which turned out to be a prophetic move.
Living in Los Angeles, being a Lakers fan and a Wildcat fan, I had mixed emotions through this series. It was difficult to cheer for the Rockets as two of Houston’s stars were a former ASU player James Harden and a former Laker Dwight Howard who disappointed the city by leaving to go to Houston to play.
On the easy side, former Wildcats Jason Terry and Nick Johnson are Rockets along with Player Development Coach Matt Brase. In addition Lakers fans cannot be Clipper fans, it’s a Los Angeles thing. Both teams are coached by ex-Boston Celtics, so that was a wash. So in the end, I feel badly for the Clippers, but I am happy that the Rockets move on; more NBA stories for Zona Zealots to write about!
First game in the semi-finals is this Tuesday in Oakland against the Golden State Warriors. The Houston Wildcats (Terry, Johnson and Brase) will be playing against Golden State Wildcats (Andre Iguodala, Steve Kerr and Luke Walton) thus we will have a number of former Arizona Wildcats to watch in this next series.
December 27, 2014; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr (right) instructs guard Andre Iguodala (9) against the Minnesota Timberwolves during the third quarter at Oracle Arena. The Warriors defeated the Timberwolves 110-97. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Congrats to all the NBA winners who are also former Arizona Wildcats, Beardown!!!
Next: Steve Kerr and his Golden State Warriors are having fun!